


Hocktide

by AngelOfDeath10



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, F/M, Fantasy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 15:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21077012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfDeath10/pseuds/AngelOfDeath10
Summary: Sarah was expecting mischief for Hocktide, but nothing on the level of what was offered to her: a dangerous man, a desperate quest, and a truly uncertain future.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hocktide is a real thing, though I'm mixing up a bit of the details to fit the situation. Also, I thought this was going to be a oneshot but it's demanding a slightly longer path. So let's see where we end up…
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth or the characters. To be honest I don't even know that much about the Tudor era, I just want to play in the sandbox a bit. You know how plot bunnies are.
> 
> Originally written in 2015.

It had not rained on Easter, so Sarah assumed it would be immediately rainy for Hocktide if April was to be totally predictable. Truly it summed up her feelings about the unusual holiday, but she put a brave face on lest her stepmother suspect further _willfulness_ and set her to some task that would upset her lungs unduly. Working with the wool sometimes caused fits of sneezing so acute she had trouble breathing for the better part of an hour. Spinning was her least favorite activity for the same reason. Sarah knew what people said behind her back… _elf touched_… but she could no more stop the fits of breathlessness than change the seasons so she paid them no mind. She didn't need their pity and she had long ago learned how to cope with their apprehension.

Rubbing her fingers over the chain that ended in an iron cross between her breasts, Sarah wondered if this year she would be abducted or not. Eligible men and women frequently were, especially when they came from wealthy families, but the mock kidnappings were only sport for the younger set and at nineteen people had begun to talk about her unmarried state. With her kind of wealth, and being rather pretty besides, it was unseemly to wait so long unless there was something wrong with her. Her union should have been growing her father's textile wealth, but more often than not she was sitting at home trying to convince her hellion of a brother to sit still long enough to do his letters. Toby was going to be less literate than the average woman at this rate, and his tutor was sick with worry over dismissal to the point of actually getting ill today. Meanwhile, Toby was running wild around the neighborhood. You never had to ask Toby twice to go outside and run; whatever weakness of the lungs Sarah had Toby seemed to have been spared.

"Sarah!" Red faced, Toby practically tumbled into her skirts all sincerity, skinned knees, and blond curls. "Will you hide? I saw Will Baker and Edward Black!" At six years old, he had more energy than she imagined anyone could possibly have. Hocktide alarmed him last year because he thought it was real and that the men had taken Sarah for good. As the day had approached this year he had become visibly agitated. That this was just a silly fundraising tactic for the parish was not as visceral as seeing grown men haul his struggling sister away last time.

"I suppose you have a spot picked out for me?" Sarah, who had been practicing her dulcimer, put down the instrument and gave Toby a wan smile. The dark clouds in the sky told her she should pack up and go into the house anyway, but any time she could avoid Karen was well spent.

Toby was pulling at her hand, trying to get her to move faster, but the combined weight of Sarah and her wide emerald green dress made her a challenging prospect to budge. "I know where they'll never find you!"

With a sigh, Sarah allowed them to move forward a few steps. "I can't fit under your bed, Toby."

Immediately the pulling stopped and Toby gave her a furious look over his shoulder, like it was her fault for being so large. "You want to be taken again, don't you! What if they don't give you back?"

And her step-mother accused Sarah of being temperamental! Toby was just a hair away from a tantrum, even if it was born of good intentions. "Toby, calm down. No one is taking me anywhere."

"You said that last year! You're a liar!"

The calm Sarah had been trying to maintain snapped as the weight of her worry and the complex feelings about being taken or overlooked this year manifested into a sneering tone. "Maybe I want to be kidnapped! It would be better than being here!"

"You're a liar and I hope I never see you again! I wish… I wish the fairies would take you away! Right now!" His lip was quivering and he seemed like he was going to burst into tears, but at the last minute he pulled himself together and gave her a nasty hand gesture he certainly did not learn at home. Sarah, who had been about to yell back, saw the gesture and tried to gasp and laugh at the same time which disoriented her momentarily.

Toby took off running towards the house and Sarah, who didn't exactly feel contrite but certainly didn't want things to end on that note, found that her yelling and gasping had been quite enough to agitate her lungs and the coughing fit overtook her. It was always harder on her in spring, for whatever reason. This time it was particularly bad, and black dots swam over her eyes as she silently prayed to God that today was not her last moment on this earth. It felt like there was not enough air in the world as Sarah clutched at her tight corseting. Before the blackness came crowding in on her, Sarah noted that it was beginning to rain. Once her dress got wet it would be a lot more difficult to stand up in, especially if she was laid out in the garden thusly.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a man lithely jump down from the edge of the garden wall, dressed in gold and black. Sarah at least had the satisfaction of knowing that she was to be abducted after all. Not an old maid yet! She also realized Toby had been right, she had lied all along even if unknowingly. Closing her eyes once more, it would be anywhere from a few minutes to an hour before she woke up again. The local men would let no harm come to her, and she hoped whatever they used to bind her would not chafe this time around. Her father had taken long enough to cough up the money last year that she had had red marks for days on her wrists.

***

It had been many months since Sarah had had an attack that left her unconscious so when she awoke, the disorientation was remarkable. Putting together the pieces before her blackout, she was relieved to note she was dry and warm. A cheerful fire crackled in the hearth nearby, and spilled light onto a beautiful tapestry. Her hands weren't even bound, which was a relief. Last time the oldest Baker boy had threatened not to let her go without a kiss, as sometimes it was the price of release to tease pretty girls, but she had frostily informed him she would wait for her ransom or judgment day before she allowed it. He had been perfectly content to let her sit bound the rest of the afternoon, and Sarah had stubbornly tolerated it.

Come to think of it, it was probably comments like that that made her all but unmarriageable in this parish. Sarah wasn't about to be a shrinking violet in the face of coercion. Something in her heart had always told her to wait for the extraordinary… perhaps someone extraordinary… before she showed even a hint of sentimentality. Her mother had taught her that before she was a faint dark haired memory. Now the word 'mother' more easily conjured up a blond woman with a pinched face and ready criticism on her lips, and Sarah stifled her anger at the stray thought.

"The princess awakes, I see."

She hated that name. The village boys would taunt her with it when her father came into sudden wealth after years of merely being comfortable, and the already reserved Sarah suddenly had all the clothes and jewels befitting her new station. It was a name borne of jealousy, but Sarah held up her head proudly and owned it instead of letting it destroy her. That gulf between her and the other children her age had never been bridged. "I prefer Sarah, if you please."

"As the lady insists."

The rain pelted down outside the window, hitting the glass loudly, and Sarah blinked into the light of the fire to try to make out more details of the man in the room. This wasn't Will, or Edward, or even John from the village, nor was the room filled with laughter and people's siblings running around as every year they gathered together to gossip and write the ransoms while having a snack. This room was more somber than jolly, and no one else was in it. The wrongness of it all struck her first, but Sarah was made of sterner stuff than to start blubbering without asking questions.

Running her fingers absently over the rich green fabric of her dress, she felt every crease and bump and wondered what predicament she was actually in. "I don't believe we are acquainted, sir. Do you live nearby to my family?"

"Closer than you'd suspect thought the distance can feel incalculable." Moving into the light Sarah noticed right away how foreign he looked, not that his skin was a different tone from hers or the color and texture of his hair beyond what she had known locals to possess, but the very otherness of him assaulted her senses. His clothes looked too sumptuous, his hair a little too long and too wild, and those oddly colored eyes of his were so disconcerting that the mere presence of this man gave her a chill. As she did when she felt nervous, she clutched at the chain of her iron cross only to find it conspicuously absent.

"Before my kidnapping I don't suppose you spied a necklace near me in the garden? I seem to have misplaced it."

"You also seem to be more alarmed by the loss of your necklace than by your kidnapping, or the presence of a stranger." He seemed amused, and he crossed the room to pull up a chair near the couch she had been placed on. Closer inspection merely revealed a cruelly handsome face that seemed perpetually on the verge of a smirk. Sarah wasn't sure she liked this person, but she admitted to herself that at least he was more interesting than many men she had encountered previously with their bland platitudes and her father's money a gleam in their eye.

"It is of little value to others, but it was a gift from my mother so I prize it rather highly. Did you see it, sir?"

"Your lady mother doesn't seem like the kind of woman who would allow something of so little value to grace your neck." Upon mentioning her neck he gave her a glance that was oddly considering, and his eyes lingered on her collarbone a moment before meeting Sarah's eyes. He was probably thinking of Karen, who loved to display the Williams' wealth in every possible fashion. That iron cross had been a barrier between them for many years, both as a memory of the woman that came before and because it did nothing to display Sarah's value to suitors.

"My _step_-mother," Sarah put careful emphasis on the word, "Has many ideas about how I should dress and act that do not align with my own." He had not answered her question, she noted, and instead was diverting her attention. Something was off about this whole situation, still.

Unable to look him in his odd colored eyes, Sarah instead focused on the light of the fire and noted numbly that there was no wood making it burn. The more she squinted at it the more certain she became that there were not even ashes present.

_This is for your protection,_ her mother Linda has said, _the fey cannot stand the touch of iron and I mean to see you safe my little one._ It had been magical at the time, a gift from her lovely but distant mother who she so rarely heard from with her lilting accent and tinkling laugh. Linda's dark hair and eyes had marked her, and by extension Sarah, in a community that never easily accepted difference. As she grew the idea of fairies seemed clearly ridiculous, but the memory of her mother was precious. Running her fingers through her loose dark hair, Sarah tried to think of a logical explanation for the fire.

"You did not take me for Hocktide, did you sir?" Sarah's voice was quiet but he was so close there was no way he would have missed it.

"I only take what is offered, lady." There was mischief in his tone, and a hint of laughter. Sarah did not want to risk yelling and upsetting her lungs but her anger burned in her with a hint of fear.

Sitting up properly and edging away from the man, she dared to look him in the eyes again and was struck by how handsome a villain he was. God should have marked him with sores or boils to keep people from being confounded before he had a chance for evil.

"I demand you return me home at once. If it's money you're after my father can pay, but I wouldn't set the price too high. An old maid of a daughter isn't worth much to anyone." Her pride burned to say the words out loud, but there was enough truth there to sound convincing.

"My dear, you misunderstand entirely." The man stood and wandered over to the fire where, as she watched, he stoked it and made it jump as blue flame flowed from the tips of his right hand. "You've been freely granted to me by your own blood. You're in no position to demand much of anything."

It was too much. Magic was not real, if it were real then where was magic when her mother fell from the horse and broke her neck? Where was magic when Karen came to live with them mere months later? There was no magic as Sarah waited for a suitable man to take her from the Williams household. Food still had to be prepared and endless accounts and questions from the staff to be answered.

"Witchcraft…" Sarah hissed under her breath as she watched the man examine the tapestry and then her once more.

"I think you'll find my power comes from neither your god nor your devil. There's more in the world than you can possibly imagine." He gestured to the window and for the first time Sarah turned, rose from the couch, and truly looked through the window and past the pelting rain.

Nowhere in England could this place exist. What seemed like miles and miles of some sort of maze twisted and turned in every direction she strained to see. Inside of it were small wooded areas, and houses dotted open spots, but it went as far as she could strain and probably farther besides in golden stone that seemed dark yellow where it was wet. The sun appeared to be setting, but it looked huge and orange in the sky and not like the friendly yellow orb she was used to at home.

"Where am I…?" There was wonder in her voice, but also a deep trepidation.

"You are at the center of my kingdom. Rather impressive if I do say so. Quite a bit more secure than the paltry moats I see in your English castles, but then you've never had to fight off true threats before." His voice was lilting, and Sarah was so distracted by the scene before her that she didn't even notice he was behind her until she felt his breath move the hair near her ear. "I assure you, my lady, you're quite safe in these walls."

The blush that warmed her cheeks and the shock that stiffened her spine and sent uncomfortable tingles through her limbs told her clearly that she was not safe at all in the presence of this man. She did not expect any harm to come to her bodily, but as she knew there were fates worse than death for unattended women in the company of unscrupulous men.

"Someone will come for me. My father will not allow this outrage!"

The man seemed to be getting tired of her outbursts because his stimulating presence faded and she turned to find him lazing in a chair with his feet propped up on the couch she had been sitting on a moment ago. A globe of what seemed to be glass was spinning at his fingertips, but he spared her some of his attention while Sarah fumed now that he was no longer looming and confusing her. No man had ever inspired such contradictory emotions in her and she did not appreciate the chaos.

"You can complain all you like, and it seems you do like to complain, but you have been wished away with no champion to represent you so I'm afraid you'll simply have to accept your circumstances."

"But… it simply isn't fair!" And it wasn't! Errant angry words spoken by a six-year-old boy should not place her future in the hands of some nefarious stranger who she was coming to suspect might not even be human (if that even seemed reasonable for a person to think)! Stomping her foot down, in her soft embroidered slipper shoes, served no purpose other than to make her foot smart and cause a flutter in her chest. Now was not the time to have another attack, so Sarah tried to take calming if shallow breaths.

The only advantage to having been isolated for most of her life meant Sarah was very comfortable inside her own head. Right now she needed to find her advantage. Assuming this man was, oh God preserve her sanity, a fairy—then nothing was decided yet. Their games and riddles were not without loopholes. He was pretending nonchalance but darting movement gave away that he was monitoring her while rotating more glass orbs through his long gloved fingers.

He had mentioned a champion, but who could she call on? Her father was not too old or weak, but he was similarly not strong willed and he had grown soft with success. No, her father would not do. If Karen loved her more, she would have been a fine champion in her own way, but she was not a wise choice. More likely Karen would take this opportunity to be rid of her than anything. Toby was too young. The house staff and the villagers all thought her odd already, and even if someone responded to her plight out of pity and against all odds won her freedom then Sarah would be tainted by witchcraft her whole life. Sometimes, she thought, you need to create your own fate.

"I will be my own champion." Leaning her hands back on the windowsill to support her weight as she felt her knees shake a bit, Sarah tried to project confidence.

The man laughed once, merrily, then his face clouded as she continued to stare him down. "You can't be serious."

"I'm as serious as I have ever been, sir. What is my task?"

The glass orbs popped like soap bubbles in his hand and Sarah blinked away her surprise at the casual magic. He looked much less relaxed and something akin to angry as he approached her this time. "So pretty and soft, the Labyrinth will eat you alive and what prize would I claim for my trouble?"

He was attempting to intimidate her with his nearness, her frantic brain supplied. The man loomed above her, placing his hand on the wall near her head and crowding her against the window. Sarah's resolve had given her strength, but the closer he got the more details she found herself picking up on: how that could only be real gold and silver thread shot through in the fashionable black clothes he wore, and how slim he was yet how he also managed to fill the room, but most of all that if he bowed his head just that much more their lips might touch…

_They use seduction, like a waterhorse trying to trick a woman into disgrace!_ A lifetime of caution and aloofness allowed her to shield herself in time.

"I will run your little maze, and I will win." Breathlessness not like the kind she was usually afflicted with made her words weak but her eyes remained hard and locked to his. Perhaps this was all a dream. Perhaps she was still laying in her garden and being soaked by the rain.

"Never forget that you chose this, my lady." He withdraw and clapped his hands once, going indistinct and reappearing dressed all in white and looking more wild and more inhuman in a cloak of creamy feathers.

"You don't scare me." She said it without a quiver in tone but they both knew it was a lie.

He snuffed the fire out with a wave of his hand, signaling their departure. "You'll find it's 'you don't scare me, _Your Majesty'_."

Sarah's world spun.


	2. Chapter 2

What she had thought to be sunset, which would have made sense, turned out to be sunrise as the orange sun looked to be higher in the sky than when she had observed it in the castle. From the distance they had arrived at, the castle looked like a child's toy. The world had stopped spinning after their magically assisted journey to the start of the labyrinth, and Sarah successfully resisted the urge to be sick from motion and nerves.

"Well, Sarah, do you still insist on this folly?" Her name curled out of his mouth softly.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I do." He looked so grand and offended in his pristine white clothes and cloak of feathers. "Should I die to one of your supposed obstacles, what name should I curse?"

While clearly incensed, he did snort in amusement at her comment. "Goblin King is sufficient for now."

He didn't look much like any goblin she had ever imagined. A nurse had told her stories once and in them the goblins had been small and wrinkled, like tiny ancient men with skin the color of moss and grass. Warty and old would have served him right, this kidnapper.

"You have thirteen hours, or until sunset in this realm if it pleases you to mark your time, at the end of which the Underground will be the only earthly realm you'll know."

"How will I know when I've won?"

He smiled, baring teeth she would have sworn were sharper than they should have been, and Sarah unthinkingly gritted her teeth right back at him in a scowl. "At the center of the Labyrinth is my castle. At the center of my castle is the throne room. Come find me there and I will take you back to your quaint garden."

Talking with him would only waste her time further, but Sarah felt compelled to keep him with her just a moment more. As perverse as it was, he was the only thing she knew in the realm she had been brought to, and other than words and the threat of intimacy he hadn't actually done anything material to her. The dangerous unknown was much scarier than a handsome scowling man, whatever his race and regardless of her anger towards him.

The air was warm, much warmer than the April weather she had left and beads of sweat were already forming. This was a supremely ridiculous situation, and Sarah realized swiftly that it meant she needed to be equally ridiculous to find a solution before her journey was over too quickly.

"Before you leave me to my fate, Goblin King, would you do me the favor of loosening my stays?"

It seemed impossible to have scandalized an amoral magical being, but Sarah was quite sure she might have because she had to repeat herself rather forcefully. The core of her being told her this was absolutely necessary, but something uncannily like Karen's voice shrieked outrage at the back of her mind.

"I said, would you loosen my stays? Between my sickness of the breath, and this impossibly heavy spring clothing, I shall not be able to walk at a pace that would even give me the most remote of chances. Loosen my stays and leave me be so I may disgrace myself alone!"

Mouth drawn thin, he snapped his fingers (a feat she was rather impressed with considering the white gloves he wore) and at once everything loosened behind her.

"Thirteen hours." He reminded her in a conversational tone before, with a narrowing of his eyes, he went blurry and disappeared from her sight entirely. Sarah blinked hard just to make sure it hadn't been a bit of grit in her eyes.

Once he was actually gone Sarah's breath left her in a rush. The urge to cry was very strong, and she clamped down on it. Sitting here and crying would not get her any closer to the castle and she had to take this impossible task seriously or else be stuck in this equally impossible world where daylight lasted 13 hours and who knew what roamed a maze that might even be the size of London.

Letting her stomacher fall to the dirt with a shock of guilt, Sarah quickly divested herself of her other items of clothing. Left with chemise, stockings, and her kirtle which covered as much of her as her dress had, she felt as if she were standing exposed out in the open just the same. Every night before bed Sarah relished removing her bodice and taking deeper breaths into her chest, and it was strange to feel so unrestrained in the light of day. She could walk for miles like this, and that was the point. It was one thing to be shameless in a world of fairies and God only knew what else, but when she won (thinking 'if' was too defeatist) she would need to be redressed or face actual disgrace so she gathered everything up as well as she could under her arm and began to walk. The long dress trailed in the dust behind her, but she filed that away under 'his fault' so when she saw the Goblin King again she'd be prepared with a shield of anger against his wiles.

The great gate that had been sitting open closed behind her unaided, but the uncanniness of this place wasn't going to phase her. Sarah took her first steps boldly.

***

"I'm not in the mood, Elden, say your peace and run back to court."

"Well, what crawled in your bed to die last night, Your Majesty?" Wiping away the glamour that had made him very nearly invisible, a bright smile topped with auburn hair appeared in the doorway of the study that Jareth had found himself brooding in. Eventually the rest of him appeared as well, but only when he had taken a seat on a bench near to the high backed chair Jareth was stiffly sitting in.

Elden could wait until the end of the world, if it took Jareth that long to begin talking, but he didn't have but a few minutes before the other man spoke.

"How long have we known one another, Elden?"

It didn't seem like a trick, so he answered honestly. "The better part of four centuries I imagine."

"And in that time, as I have been serving as monarch of this particular kingdom, has there been an adult given over to me rather than a child?"

Elden was quickly realizing that he was not here to answer any real questions but to act as a sounding board for Jareth's displeasure. The High King in his shining wisdom had only sent Elden with a message of the movement of court to the Summer Palace earlier than usual along with an invitation to join them (which Jareth almost universally ignored). He did not know the intimate workings of the Goblin Kingdom, he simply knew it was all very complicated. Honestly, they had a much better time drinking and hunting together when Jareth was feeling jolly enough to visit his parents—coming to this dreary portion of the Underground was never to his liking.

With a flick of his wrist, the wine glass that had been across the way on a low table appeared in Jareth's hand. Elden was surprised that Jareth was using magic for something so petty. Truly the man must be distracted.

"Not once! Not even my father spoke of such things, other than go on about the glory days before Christianity swept through and the mortals began to forget the old ways…" Elden still had to sit through some of those stories, when the king waxed nostalgic, but his excellent smile and good listening habits served him everywhere. "In time a child will be formed by the magic around him, he'll change in the only way magic knows how to change anything… but the goblins and the gnomes and the other sprites are well suited to the mentality of a child and the flexibility of his belief…"

So an adult got wished away to Jareth's domain? How curious! Elden knew this piece of information would provide him with all kinds of favor in the coming days if the end of this proved a diverting story for the courtiers. A grown mortal in the Underground, wished here not simply lost, was too juicy not to share with at least a few shining ladies who might see him as a little more than the second son of a minor noble. Jareth wasn't usually bothered by mortals of any type, part of the nature of the job here in the slightly distasteful Goblin Kingdom, and Elden had a rare flash of insight.

"She's pretty isn't she? Dark hair? Snapping eyes?"

Jareth's absent thoughts focused sharply and Elden could feel the tips of his hair burn as the prince of the realm decided if spontaneous combustion was a fitting end to their acquaintance. While Elden knew he wouldn't really do it, Jareth's strengths lying in illusion rather than raw force, there was a trill of fear while Elden wondered just how strong their friendship really was when the Goblin King was in a mood.

Downing the rest of the goblet's contents, Elden felt the weight of the king's focus leave him and other than the burned hair smell he knew that he was in the clear. Later on, he would regret speaking up at all, but how was he to know how accurately his arrow had flown to the heart of Jareth's problem?

"I can't in good conscience leave her to navigate the Labyrinth alone."

"But you said she was the one taken so shouldn't it be her champion and not—?"

"Don't think too hard on it, just be content to know that she's in the Labyrinth at this moment and not leaving until the 13 hours have passed and she is either dead," He paused for thought there a moment. "Or bound by the magic."

_Or free._ But the idea that the human would complete the Labyrinth was almost too funny for words. "So if you mean to keep her safe, but you're not allowed to interfere with her trip in any great measure, then how in the world can you expect to… " Realization dawned on him and Elden's smile faltered. "Oh no, you just can't! I thought we were friends!"

"Then as your friend I advise you to take good care to steer her away from the more deadly portions of the Labyrinth, as you'll find it rather inconvenient to face me later should she die." The spell Jareth was working was a bit more powerful than the glamour that Elden had entered under to avoid the inconvenient ceremony that visiting a king always entailed. The feeling of it was not just diversion but transformation, and luckily it would last no longer than the day. The world grew to twice its size before he could even lament his fate. Gnarled hands replaced his elegantly ones, and his favorite maroon outfit became tan peasant's garb. This was too much to bear, even from a friend!

His voice cracked unusually as Elden finally felt his bones settle in his new form. "I fully expect you to put in a good word with Dulcinea for me this summer. This is really too much!"

"You wanted to know all the gossip, Elden, and now you shall have it firsthand." The twisted smile Jareth gave him prompted nothing but a sigh from the squat form he was trapped in for the day. With nothing to obsess over other than unruly creatures and a living maze, Jareth was more of a zookeeper here than a king. He truly needed to accept the invitation to the Summer Palace this year and get some quality time with his own people before he ended up more eccentric.

"It just had to be a dwarf, didn't it?"

"I think you'll find the experience highly educational."

***

These shoes were not meant for long walks anywhere, let alone outside, and Sarah was certainly feeling that right now. Even though the sun seemed to not have budged from its position in the sky, her feet proclaimed it might as well have been hours. How she longed for something to drink, her ale at breakfast seemingly distant. The dress she carried also seemed to have become heavier, and she wished she could blame it on magic when she knew it was because her arms were unused to this kind of labor.

"A pox on you Goblin King!" She said it out loud just to say something out loud. The sound of a voice was comforting, but the echo in the small courtyard she found herself just made it all the lonelier. Where were these terrible obstacles she would have to face? Other than silence and sore feet she wasn't feeling like this place was all that fantastical.

Silence had been in short supply for Sarah between managing staff, directing cooking, practicing music, and Toby in general. Karen was ever present for all these activities, picking and observing but sometimes providing helpful guidance as well. As Sarah had gotten older the comments had gotten sharper, as well as more pointed about how it was time she had her own household to run. Compared to Karen, silence was a blessing.

Sitting on a raised stone from what looked like a toppled over portion of the wall (though she had turned to find it filled in moments later), Sarah rubbed her foot and continued to curse this strange set of circumstances she had been placed into. When the crash came, it seemed almost deafening to her sensitive ears. The crashing was followed with what was probably cursing, but in no language she could discern (a curse in any language seemed to have the same force and tenor) but it didn't seem to be getting closer.

Curious, but wary, Sarah grabbed a chunk of rock with a point on it and moved slowly towards the sounds while at the same time wondering why she would do something so risky when sensibility would dictate she move away from it. There was no chance she could run, so stealth was imperative, but she wanted this strange place to show her what it was made of and allow her to test her own mettle. If the Goblin King was going to throw obstacles at her, then she wanted to show she was up to the challenge.

"Infernal weeds!"

With a cry Sarah noted thick vines wrapped around the struggling form of a small man. He held a trowel that was proving no match for the vines dragging him slowly across the patch of turf towards a bulb about his size. The bulb opened as he neared it, showing teeth on every petal and a yellow interior more mouth-like than anything a plant should possess. It was a vision Sarah wished she could banish from her memory, but once she got over her disgust she grabbed more nearby rocks and began to throw them in the gaping maw.

"Quickly! I can distract it!" Her aim was not always dead on, but there were enough rocks and her throws were forceful enough that the rocks were clearly building up. Tendrils uncurled from the man so that they could pick at the rocks in its mouth and eventually he struggled out of their grasp and ran in her direction with a peculiar limping gait.

A vine that had snuck around behind her grabbed her by the ankle and Sarah took a hard fall onto the ground as it tripped her, hearing her kirtle rip with the impact. Being much larger than the dwarf, the plant was having a harder time dragging her, so when the trowel came down on the vine and severed it, the vine withdrew entirely. At this distance they appeared to be safe, the plant having lost interest in everything but the rocks. Staying seated on the ground, Sarah looked into the wrinkled face of the dwarf who was catching his breath. The twitching vine around her ankle was spreading disgusting looking ooze on the hem of her kirtle and the rip at her knee was dotted with red blood. It had made it through the chemise too, it seemed.

"Are you unharmed, sir?"

"I've seen better days, but I still have all my limbs no thanks to—" He cut off abruptly and gave her a pointed look; something shifted in his attitude. "I suppose I owes you thanks."

"You're lucky I heard you. I haven't seen beast nor man since I started this journey." She didn't mention the Goblin King. Technically he was neither beast nor man.

The dwarf stood and dusted himself off. "Owing a human anything doesn't sit right with me." His tone told her everything about how much he valued humans, and it sounded like she rated right up there with weeds. "What's it you want? Jewels? Magical tools? Eternal bad breath for your foes? I'm a busy, uh, dwarf. Tell me so's I can be on my way."

"There's only one thing I want right now, and I'm afraid you'll have to endure my company a little longer to make it happen." His short legs would not allow him to walk too fast, so they should be able to keep pace together nicely. A guide was exactly what she needed! Even if he only knew a part of the maze, it would be a great help. Suddenly the world seemed a lot less hopeless than it had when she was resting on the rock alone mere minutes ago and she allowed a true smile to light her face for the first time down here.

"I don't know if I likes the sound of that…" he murmured.

"Since you're going to guide me through the maze I can't be calling you 'dwarf.' I'm Sarah, what might I call you?"

His mouth screwed up in a scowl, his eyes canny and bright in his ancient face. If she didn't know better she'd say something was wrong about this, but she wasn't in any position to be choosy about where and how help might happen. Even duplicitous or slightly unwilling help would be better than her random wanderings.

"I suppose Hoggle would be as good as anything else, but if ya think I can guide you through this place you're mad already!" He ground out the name and she didn't hear it so well.

"Hobble?"

"Hoggle!" A glob of spittle flew from his mouth and landed on her hand in his enthusiasm. She furtively rubbed her hand against her hip to get rid of it and wondered if, indeed, this dwarf helping her was better than nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Jareth observed 'Hoggle' and Sarah interact with a grim satisfaction from one of his crystals. She hadn't sustained anything beyond scrapes, but she was already scratching at the rash that had developed where the plant sap had dripped on her foot. It hadn't been a particularly deadly encounter, everything had been well in hand, but he was chagrined at how poorly Elden had handled himself. The intention had been for the girl to see the plant but not interact with it—her judgment was sorely lacking to leap to someone's aid without assessing the danger to herself first—and now Elden actually owed her a debt of sorts. Complications of this kind were highly inconvenient. He burned with the need to keep the mortal Sarah until the time limit had passed, and barriers to his intent sent unwanted jets of alarm through his spine. On the outside he remained unruffled, a study of regal calm.

After centuries of tending the Labyrinth Jareth was finally in a position where something might change. If he had said such a thing to Elden, or any other fay for that matter, they would have thought him mad. The years passed, seasons changed, the Labyrinth and the denizens of the Underground were in a constant state of flux as deaths and feuds and births and transformations continued… but the cycles were so predictable. You could see it if you observed instead of participated, and the farther he was from the High King's court the clearer his vision seemed to become.

No two mortals had ever been the same. Many of the children seemed similar, and of a similar age, but challengers varied so much from person to person. They reacted differently to the same set of circumstances, and Jareth had become increasingly fascinated with how volatile the human mind could be. When you were counting years in decades instead of millennia maybe rapid change was more important.

Absently, Jareth found himself wandering to the map room where he had first taken her. The tapestry next to the fireplace shifted subtly to match the living Labyrinth and he watched it for a time. The enchantment was really quite advanced, even for one of his kind, changing the perception of the threads rather than actually materially rearranging anything. Underneath everything was an immobile picture, simplistic and indistinct, only made extraordinary by the magic that surrounded it. In his heart, Jareth felt that assessment was more broadly applicable to the Underground, and he feared that the isolation he had endured in the Goblin Kingdom along with his close association with mortals had made him different from other fay. Difference would be sniffed out in time, and among the fay difference could eventually be deadly if the wrong individual came to the wrong conclusion. Ironically, that sounded very human.

Glancing to the bench where Sarah had lain, Jareth approached and ran his gloved hands over the wood until he came away with his prize. A strand of her hair would be more than enough to discover enough about this girl to weave a tighter net to capture her.

"Let's see who you really are, my lady."

***

"Come, Hoggle, I think I found something interesting!" Trying to ignore her itching foot, Sarah forged ahead. Stone walls had become interrupted by thorny bushes of similar height. The plant from earlier told her to be wary of greenery, but she thought the fact that anything had changed around them was a good sign of progress. The day was already a quarter past.

"Will you wait? These legs can only get me there so fast!" Was the testy reply. The dwarf seemed determined not to be friendly, despite her polite inquiries about his family or his hobbies. Being soundly rebuffed with 'it's none of your business' every time had made her less inclined to talk to him, but he had gruffly steered her through some twists and turns until they had found themselves at this junction so she wasn't overly irritated. If someone had interrupted her day and forced her to come on a forced march into the unknown she would have been difficult as well.

Hoggle, who had summarily refused to help her carry any part of her dress, was still somehow lagging behind. Sarah hadn't been walking all that much ahead of him but she had a much more acute sense of urgency compared to the dwarf. He had told her not to move so fast in case the Labyrinth, a name which he said with darting eyes as if it were listening, changed itself and isolated her from him. If he cared about her getting lost he couldn't be that bad of a person.

"Look, it's a cave." It was lined by rocks with runes carved into them. "What do these runes say?"

"How'm I supposed to know?"

"Well, you're a dwarf aren't you? Isn't underground… something you know well?"

He gave her a sour look, like most of the looks he gave her. "I'm not that kind of dwarf."

Sarah wasn't going to be discouraged by him, she had found something other than the eternally frustrating maze to explore and she was hoping it would lead to some sort of shortcut. Wouldn't that show the king if she just bypassed his trial? The sun told her that time was passing at the speed of daylight, and she was exhausted and thirsty. What seemed even more appealing than the thought of being somewhere cool was the possibility of water for her aching feet and a sip for her parched throat no matter how unclean the liquid might be.

"Well come on then, Hoggle."

"I'm not going down there, and neither should you missy!"

She wasn't about to let him convince her, but she asked the question anyway. "Whyever not?"

Hoggle sputtered a little. "It's dark! And who knows where it goes!"

"If you squint you can see there's a light, and I intend to explore just a little because it's no more strange or foreign compared to what's up here." She spoke in the tone that Karen often scolded her for taking, accusing her of being petulant and stubborn. They had been too long in the sun, and Sarah wasn't going to turn from what she saw as a cool respite.

Hoggle sputtered something in that language she didn't speak as she marched forward into the darkness and down rough stone steps. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark at the bottom of the stairs she saw there was a sharp turn, but then the tunnel opened up into a rather large cavern. At the center of the cavern came the source of the glow that reflected off all the walls.

Bound in what looked like gold chains from every limb as well as its neck was a strange dusky orange lizard. It blinked filmy eyes at her, forked tongue darting in and out of its mouth. Maybe the size of a large dog, Sarah wondered at its placement in the middle of a bubbling spring as steam rose from where the water made contact with its body. It continued to look at her, but its eyes would blink as its body swayed. It was clearly trying to stay out of the water, lifting one leg out and then another in turn, but most likely exhaustion from its imprisonment meant it was a doomed task.

"Sarah, stop acting the fool and come back up where—" Hoggle's voice cut off with a hiss of fear. He sputtered nonsense, shuffling and pointing at the lizard.

"What is it?" It seemed so sad, bound in heavy chains and locked to the water she wanted so dearly.

"It's very dangerous and we need to go!" Hoggle grabbed her hand and pulled at her, so scared that he stooped to touching her despite his obvious dislike for humans.

"But it looks tormented," Hoggle weighed little more than Toby, so made about as much leeway pulling her as the boy had previously. He was nervous too, his hand sweaty, so Sarah shook him off easily. "I just want to see it a little closer."

The creature shifted as she neared, chains clinking as it thrashed to get farther away and succeeded in nothing more than tiring itself out and sagging further into the water. She tried to move slowly, Hoggle unwilling to venture closer to keep her from her folly but clearly torn in what his duty was here. It seemed entirely unreasonable for him to be so scared of something clearly bound in chains and unable to move. Weird chirping noises and clicks emanated from it, but when no immediate harm befell it the creature went very still and watched her instead. It opened its mouth for a moment, revealing nothing more than pink gums, and Sarah felt even more pity as it looked like it might have had teeth once with nothing but eight puckered holes that had long since healed over.

"Whatever those runes said, Sarah, I'd guess none of them was 'welcome'! We need to go!" Hoggle called urgently, voice quivering.

The skin was iridescent, glowing and shining gold and red depending on the angle you looked at the creature with what looked to be long healed scars all over its sides. The dusky orange was so smooth, and Sarah longed to touch it but even she knew some caution. This close she was searching for a way to get the chains off the creature. Circling around the small pond she couldn't see any key hole or even how the metal itself had been forged to connect. It was probably a thing of magic, just like the beast.

"Impossible." Looking into the big mournful eyes, she thought of the dog she had had as a girl. It had been a sheep dog but Sarah had thought it looked more sheep than dog, and she had cried every night for a week when he had died. At the time it had felt like her only friend had left her, just like her mother had left her. "I wish I could help you, lizard, but there's no answer to this puzzle."

Its tail lashed back and forth and it gave a sad trill, which hurt Sarah's heart much more than she had expected. It raised one sticky paw out of the water and strained in her direction, keening, which made her think it understood her intentions if not her words. On a whim, she reached her fingers out to meet the tips of its appendage.

"No!" Hoggle was running towards her now but it was too late as she made contact and it felt like a fire rushed through her followed by the coldest she'd ever felt. It was as if she was made of ice and she didn't even have time to think or feel much pain as she blacked out.

***

Making the surface permeable, Jareth coiled the hair in the bottom and then allowed the spell to take its course. Hair from the head was best for scrying magic, something Jareth had a more than passing familiarity with but little call to look to the past when the present was busy enough. All the work was in sustaining the spell now that he had a focus, so he hoped he would see something worthwhile.

_Sarah was seemingly alone in a room, plucking her dulcimer. The tune was lovely, but somewhat odd like the dulcimer wasn't the instrument it was supposed to be played on. On examining the scene a baby lay nearby in the crib, obviously pleased as he made effort to eat his own fist and wiggled. Sarah hummed along softly to the tune and Jareth wondered what words had accompanied it. The door was thrust open suddenly and a pretty blond woman maybe ten years Sarah's senior bore down on her in a fury._

_ _"How dare you play that filthy gypsy music for my son!" The baby, startled, began to fuss._ _

_ _ _"It's just music! It isn't harming anyone!"_ _ _

_ _ _ _"Hasn't your dead mother done enough damage to this house? Forget her!"_ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _Red faced, clearly enraged, Sarah stood and delivered a ringing slap to the woman in front of her. In the silence that followed the blond woman stiffly passed her with venom in her eyes and picked up Sarah's dulcimer. Sarah too late saw what she intended._ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _"No!"_ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _The instrument came down with a sick dissonant crash against the large chair it had rested on and the baby began to cry in earnest. The two halves were mere pieces of wood held together by the limp strings._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"You can explain to your father why you need a new one." All the blood had left Sarah's face, still a little round with adolescence and soft living. "I know for a fact he forbade you from playing that music."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _As the baby whined next to them, all the fight left the older woman's demeanor. Sarah was a statue of pain and shock. "I'll purchase you a new one if you swear to me now you'll never play that song again."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Biting her lip and looking at the floor, Sarah balled her hands into fists. For what seemed like ages, nothing happened other than the baby's cries._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"I…" Tears dropped from her downcast face onto the floor._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Yes?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"I swear." It was almost a whisper but Jareth heard it and so did the other woman who dropped the broken instrument absently and wandered over to coo at the baby._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _The scene melted away. It was not surprising that an adolescent girl and her not much older stepmother would not get along well at first, but he wondered at how this memory was one of the strongest that surfaced. Jareth's own mother, distant in the way royalty always was, had never seemed so animated. Pliant and fair she was all elegance, and he remembered being dressed and cleaned for when she came to visit and play with him at her whim. The work of raising him had been for nurses and tutors, as was expected, so it was hard imagining living in such proximity to family as to end up in highly emotional scenes like what he had witnessed. Perhaps if he were more like his older brother, hot tempered and martial, he would have experienced more familial strife. Then again, he would have also been sent to the borderlands to battle trolls and ogres seeking to expand their territory, so Jareth was perfectly happy to inherit his mother's looks and well as her more even turn of mind._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _The hair had burned away so much he doubted he'd get but two more visions out of it, so he turned back to his task._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"… her birthday has come and gone again and still you have not found her a suitor! The heavens know well she has no interest in the men of this parish! She should have been planning her wedding last year, and instead she lives at home. The women ask me why we wait, and I don't know how many more excuses I can give!" The blond woman looked older now, noticeably, and was speaking to a tall man who was unremarkable in every other way, the most distinguishing feature being eyeglasses perched on his nose. He nodded with a fond expression at his wife, but he spoke to her in fairly hushed tones as if he were approaching an angered animal. Their conversation became indistinct._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Sarah?" A little blond boy startled the girl who had been listening from just around the corner from the open door. Her hand clutched at the iron cross around her neck and Jareth instinctively stiffened even in the vision where the iron could not hurt him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Toby, where is your nurse?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"She thinks I'm napping. Play with me?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Obviously wanting to hear more of the adults' conversation, thoughts warred on Sarah's face before she sighed and relented. "Let's go outside. Want to hear a story?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Is it new?" When Sarah nodded, the boy looked excited and ran ahead through the house. Following behind slowly, passing servants attending to cooking in the kitchen, Sarah emerged into the summer sunshine and found Toby picking at grass near a bench._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Once she had taken her seat, Sarah began to tell a tale of adventure about a knight who couldn't do anything right but somehow managed to win the day every time. It was a silly story, where every kind deed and mistaken identity somehow worked out in the knight's favor. As the knight won his fight against a dragon by discovering the dragon would rather eat bread than sheep, while Toby giggled, Sarah looked bright and happy._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"That was the best, you're the best." Toby stood up and wrapped his cubby child arms around her waist before running off to find a stick and pretend to be a knight himself._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _In the sunlight, a breeze blowing her hair around her gently, she watched the plants sway and Toby enjoy himself._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Perfect." Was all she said as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the warm light, glowing like a jewel in her rose colored dress._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Jareth had no idea what to think about what he had witnessed, but before he could form an opinion he felt an urgent pull from the crystal he had given Elden for emergencies. Knowing his friend to be silly but never to show truly bad judgment, Jareth immediately allowed himself to be pulled to the location Elden was calling him from._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _***_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _The scene that greeted Jareth was about as grim as he was expecting. Not normally prone to violence, the urge to punch Elden in his face would have been irresistible if his friend had been his normal self. Instead, Jareth silently ground his teeth and let his mismatched eyes pin the dwarf to the floor with the force of his stare._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"I told her we shouldn't come down here, and I tried to get her to go back up but she's just so stubborn and this body is worthless…" Elden's panicked babble continued as Jareth approached Sarah's crumpled form. Her arm had landed in the water, along with some of her hair, but the rest of her was face down on the ground next to the pool and thankfully shivering otherwise he would have suspected her dead. The blue tinge to her in the warm glow the fire elemental gave off was most certainly another bad sign. The salamander pacing around her body gave a hiss and bared nonexistent fangs at him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"You're a long way from your home, beast, but even you are counted among my subjects while you exist in my kingdom." In truth Jareth hadn't even been aware of it being held at this location, but if you wanted to hide illicit activity, the large and magically complex Labyrinth would be an excellent location and it wasn't the first surprise he'd encountered in his domain. Judging by the scarring he suspected the deep dwarves who prized salamander blood to fuel their lanterns, as a small amount would burn for decades uninterrupted. Puddles of gold in the middle of the swell of groundwater showed him how it had been kept but not how it had been freed._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _His warning notwithstanding, the beast hissed furiously as Jareth took another careful step forward. Elementals were unpredictable and if this one had taken upon itself to guard Sarah for whatever reason then he might be stepping into a fight he did not want. As the beast's eyes flicked from him to Elden, Jareth paused and turned on his heel._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Elden."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Yes, your majesty?" Jareth gestured for them to move towards the entrance and the salamander visible relaxed, its tongue brushing her exposed arm skin and turning it pink and healthy for a moment before it faded to blue and pale as it drew its tongue back in. No doubt, its efforts were all that was sustaining her life._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _They emerged into the sunshine and Jareth quickly read the runes explicitly warning danger and threatening death to any who entered. He wiped a hand over the distasteful graffiti to eliminate it from the rocks and stowed this detail in his mind next time the deep dwarves asked for mining rights. Even though they no longer stood in the cold cave, Elden seemed to be shaking in his temporary boots._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Explain to me how, even though I told you rather clearly to both lead her away from the center and to not let harm befall her, that somehow you are both relatively close to my castle and she lies under the paw of a _salamander_?" Jareth had on a remarkably calm façade for how fast he could feel his heart pound, every beat demanding him to take action._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Well, you see, I uh…" Totally ignoring the first half of it Elden instead launched into what he felt was the most relevant and no doubt least incriminating statement he could make. "She insisted on going into the cave and I told her at every turn not to go near the beast but she's twice my size and isn't about to listen to what anyone else says!"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"My aren't you full of excuses today," Jareth smiled with no trace of amusement. "But how did the beast get out?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Elden took a deep breath and let his words out in a rush. "She touched it! She touched it, just the tip of her finger really, and then the thing lit up like a sun and the gold chains melted right off of it. After that she didn't move but the thing wouldn't let me get within twenty paces without rearing up. So I called you."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Stay here, I'll clean up this mess you engendered and when she wakes up make sure you don't allow this to progress. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the peat in the Bog is just as sticky as tar and would prove difficult to escape from, even in your natural form…" The threat was almost a joke, but with enough seriousness behind it that Elden simply looked glum and kept his mouth shut._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	4. Chapter 4

Jareth made his way back down into the cave where he knew Sarah's body lay. The beast paced around her, flicking its tongue to bring warmth to her, but it couldn't stay like this forever. Once Jareth was close enough that the salamander began to show signs of alarm, he slowed to a stop and spoke to it in a commanding tone.

"You show concern for this mortal, and I swear to you as the Goblin King that I mean her no harm." The words formed easily, there was no hint of duplicity in them, and Jareth was surprised at how sincerely he meant it. Scare her possibly, enrage her for the fun of it probably, but hurting her was neither his nature nor his inclination. "Stand down, beast."

The creature didn't back away, but neither did it threaten him as he bridged the distance between himself and the girl. It sat on the ground, still but for its thrashing tail, and Jareth finally got the opportunity to examine the fallen woman.

Even through his gloves he could feel her emanating cold. The blue tint to her was made all the more obvious by how unnaturally pale she had become. A winter indoors could not explain her pallor, and Jareth suspected that the salamander had stolen the entire spring worth of sunlight from her skin. It acted out of instinct, not malice, but clearly it knew it could not fix what it had wrought. Jareth carefully removed her hand from where it lay in the water and noted the tip of her index finger singed black. Time would tell if that faded or healed, but he doubted it would ever entirely leave.

Sarah was so vulnerable like this, and Jareth thought that any other Goblin King would feel triumphant in the obvious opportunity to win. He could keep her like this until the day was up and claim his prize. It would be a legitimate strategy, and the calculating part of him urged the easy solution. However, something deep and shameful spiraled in his mind and he knew he could no more leave her to suffer for hours on end then he could abandon the call when a child was gifted to him. Perhaps this was what it was like to feel human, to have your emotions conquer logic and self-interest. Perhaps humanity was contagious.

Gathering her into a sitting position, Jareth watched her head limply fall to one side. Dirt cascaded from her hair, and her shivers were more severe than ever now that his own heat was reminding her tired body what it was missing. A low hiss was escaping the mouth of the salamander but it didn't move anything but its tail and its eyes as it waited to see what Jareth would do with the girl.

The easiest way to fix this problem had occurred to Jareth the moment he saw her twitching on the ground and he had delayed long enough. Life and warmth started with breath, and he made sure she was not conscious as he carefully observed her fluttering eyelids and felt her icy panting through her slack jaw. Only the salamander would be witness to this, and the beast could no more communicate this moment of weakness than recite poetry so he allayed his fear. This would change everything, but he felt there was no other way.

Sarah's lips were so cold as he bent down to meet them that he had to pull away at first. She burned with cold. He wasn't about to let shock get the better of him, and he met her frigid lips once more and softly allowed his breath to move through her, magically pushed ever so slightly to speed its healing progress. Jareth felt the cold begin to seep into him as nature sought to balance them out, and while he could not return the slight tan to her skin she had been stripped of he did feel her body warm as his cooled. He lost himself for just a moment as she became pliant and pleasant in his arms, making him feel something more dark and passionate than he had meant when this began. Once his blood quickened he pulled away abruptly before his body stirred against hers, and saw a reassuring rosiness to her cheeks. The desire she had sparked in him he tried to firmly clamp down and extinguish, but it sat like a hot ember in the back of his mind.

"The dwarf is not as he seems, do not cause him trouble on her behalf." He spoke to the salamander who was watching him silently. The blinking stare was blank, but Jareth felt his own sense of recrimination reflecting off of it all the same. Weak. A king couldn't afford to be weak, particularly over some mortal.

He picked up her still unconscious form and began a slow assent to the light. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the salamander stir and suspected Sarah had made another friend. She had an uncanny ability to draw others to her, even as she pushed them away.

"You cruel, beautiful thing." He murmured to her around an ungentlemanly grunt as he shifted her dead weight in his arms and ascended the stone steps into daylight.

***

The priest had told her, time and again, that God had a plan for her. Sarah hadn't had time to pray before her world went black, but she certainly had a blessing on her lips when she woke up. Bone weary, she forced open her eyes and came to two conclusions almost simultaneously: that orange midday sun meant this was not a dream, and Hoggle was even uglier when he was concerned than when he was angry. A wart on his nose loomed large as he bent over her and let out a sigh as she blinked back.

"So's you're awake." He leaned away and Sarah turned her head towards a flash of orange to see that on the other side of her sat the lizard. It was sprawled on a rock while Sarah lay exposed to the sun on the cracked path in front of the cave. At least she assumed it must be the same cave, because the runes had disappeared from the front of it. Magic was a lot easier to accept now that she had been exposed to it a few times.

"How long was I asleep?" The sun was almost directly overhead and that already told her she had lost precious hours as surely as if they had been stolen by the Goblin King himself. Drawing in a long breath, her sigh rocked her body.

"Long as you needed it, I s'pose." He acted dismissive but she noticed he picked up her dress from where it had been dropped earlier outside the cave's entrance. If he wasn't going to mention that kindness then neither would she, but Sarah felt a glow inside of her that allowed her enough energy to stand with only the tiniest stumble.

"I don't know how I can thank you. It must have been some chore dragging me from the depths."

"Don't mention it." Hoggle strode ahead, seemingly uncomfortable with the praise.

Rogue shivers passed through Sarah's body as she caught up with Hoggle, but she assumed it had been a chill from the cave lingering that would cause it. The lizard walked next to her, stopping when she stopped, keeping pace effortlessly on its short legs but always maintaining just enough distance to be out of reach. The comforting warmth it exuded made Sarah glad for its presence.

"I think it needs a name. I can't go around calling it an it, or lizard, that just seems unmannerly."

Catching up to Hoggle hadn't been hard, with his short legs and now burdened by the dress. Sarah picked dirt out of her hair as she went, having abandoned the thought that her kirtle would even be salvageable at the end, with its tears, dirt, and blood stains marring it. The weird green plant matter had dried on her stockings and she still felt the urge to itch at her ankle, so they were probably a lost cause as well. A keen feeling of loss jetted through her as she tried to seek comfort from her iron cross to remember it was lost to her in this place.

"Maybe things in the Underground don't like bandying about with names the way you humans do. Maybe down here naming everything is unmannerly." He huffed as they rounded a corner and began to walk up a slight incline that looked like it would grow steeper. Tree tops became immediately visible and Sarah tried to will her tired limbs to keep going.

"I mean no offense. What would you say it was then?"

"It's a fire elemental so… I would say it's a fire elemental." Hoggle acted like this was the only sensible thing to say.

"That's not very creative. Why can't you just call it a temporary name?"

Hoggle gave her a look over his shoulder that told her he thought she had empty air between her ears. "A fake name is too much like a lie. I says things like I sees 'em."

Trickery, manipulation, deception—all those things were fair game to these creatures but Sarah recalled now that they couldn't lie directly. Lies by omission were fine, but if you asked enough of the right questions you could still protect yourself from their false promises. It was hard to think Hoggle capable of such guile as he tromped up the small hill holding onto her green dress, but it was easy enough to imagine the Goblin King entrapping her in some web of deceit.

"What do you know of the Goblin King?"

Hoggle stopped in his tracks so fast she almost ran him over. The lizard hissed, not liking to get any closer to the dwarf than it could help.

"Now missy, you can't be askin' me to do anything treasonous."

It was a harsh word to throw around. "You could ask me what I think of my own king and I could tell you without it being treason. I want to know what you think of him."

"You first." Hoggle snorted and began to walk again, huffing a little as the incline finally steepened.

Sarah climbed and thought absently. "Polite. Intense." Her temper turned as she recalled her aching body and the danger to her freedom were all directly his fault. "I don't know, I barely spent any time with him! Maybe I'm nervous. Maybe I want to know what kind of life I'll lead if I don't—" The words had come out rashly and she hadn't realized what she was saying until they were spoken. Her heart clenched as they neared the entrance to the forest and her throat closed up in the precursor to sorrow.

"He's fair," Hoggle supplied in the silence. "Responsible, which is part of why he's here taking care of this domain. Not many would have the ability, either the power or the temperament."

"What is this place?" Sarah saw the lizard skirt the shadows, obviously displeased with the prospect of exiting the sunny path they had been following.

"The Labyrinth is an entryway. When a child is wished away the Goblin King must answer, and in the days when the veil was thin it used to happen frequently. Now that you have your Christian god, you people don't know what you ought to fear. The afterlife holds not even a tenth of the terror this place can offer the living in either realm." Sarah was starting to notice that sometimes Hoggle's speech was rough and sometimes it seemed fine. Her earlier thoughts about his simplicity would have to be reviewed.

They were silent until they reached the tree line, the lizard doing anxious circles nearby to Sarah, while Hoggle asked for a break. He set her dress down for a moment and wiped sweat from his brow with a dirty cloth he produced from his pocket. As Hoggle got his breath back from the long climb up the hill, Sarah had a moment of confusion followed by wonder.

"Hoggle," When he didn't immediately answer she said it louder. "Hoggle!"

"What?"

"I can breathe!"

"So can I, so what?"

She started to pace, the lizard matching her for a moment before settling on a nearby sunny rock pile. "You don't see, how would you know? That hill should have winded me immediately. Since the cave I haven't felt a tightening in my chest once, and just now I took in air so deeply that I couldn't believe my chest could hold it all!"

Hoggle shrugged, unsure of how to react to the suddenly beaming girl.

"All my life! I have never been able to run or play or climb, and now when I need it most my malady has been lifted. It's a blessing, a sign!" She rushed over and hugged him tight, like she would have with Toby if he had been here to see her joy. "I've never been so ready for this, and I don't know if you were a part of my cure, but my thanks to you all the same."

When she let him go he looked flustered, smoothing down his clothes and clucking at her for being out of her mind. There was no venom in his words, though, and she thought she might even have seen a smile before the perpetual scowl had fallen on his face again.

"You have no idea how many days I spent sitting in grassy hills watching the other children play. They tried to get me to come with but I knew I would fall down coughing and they would pity me." It hadn't taken much for a proud child to convince herself that if she couldn't play them, then the games others played couldn't be that fun. "When I get home the first thing I'll do is run to the chapel and thank God, and then chase Toby down and make him sit through his whole lesson for once."

While she was brave, she needed to keep this journey going. Hoggle grabbed the dress up and slung it over his shoulder while Sarah strode past the tree line into the increasingly dark forest. The lizard paced around the outside for a few moments before, at her call, it made its choice and entered the lush green space.

***

Six hours. Jareth marked their entry into the woods knowing that they had reached the outer edge of the inner ring. Elden had led her away from many traps, it was true, but he had done his job too well and she was still within striking distance of a win. Dumb luck had a hand in it, as not even he could predict how the Labyrinth would shift in any given moment. He had braced for this, telling Elden to lead Sarah into the woods should they make it that far and then simply move in circles until the time was up. Those forests were so dark and difficult she would never guess at the trick, and without being able to see the sun her urgency would be stifled. It would be a gentle loss for her, and Jareth could collect her without the drama of a confrontation at his home.

But it never hurt to have a plan within a plan, and Jareth loved schemes as much as the next fay. Secretly he hoped Sarah would make it just a little farther so that the contingency plan he had handed to Elden would be the only option. The drugged peach was an old trick, but potent. Mortals warned time and again that to eat fairy fruit was to be trapped, and in a sense that was true but like many fairy stories it was not accurate. The food of the underground was not any more or less special than the fruit of the mortal realm, with the exception being that the poisons frequently slipped into party food to test the lesser fay and amuse the higher could spin a human into a hallucination so deep and powerful they never emerged. Jareth, having grown up in a royal household, knew when he food was clean and when he needed to mistrust it and had quite a refined knowledge of dosages.

A Sarah lost in a vision would be a Sarah not conscious for the transformation the magic would work on her once she had exceeded her thirteen hours, and it was the kindest distraction he could think to provide her.

"Sire, your Praetor have arrived and been seated."

The guard stayed bowed, the distinctive pointed ears of the southern clans sticking out from the sides of his silver helmet. Guards cycled through a decade of duty, coming from all across the kingdom as a tithe to the High King. None of them wanted to come, but some chose to stay finding the less stringent rules of the Goblin Kingdom a rare taste of freedom from Court life. This guard must have been new because he did not rise even once Jareth had acknowledged him.

"I shall arrive at the hall shortly, you are dismissed." The guard backed away without meeting his eyes and quickly moved down the hallway in a clatter of armor. Jareth made a note to speak to the captain of the guard and remind him that the warriors that defended the Labyrinth within and without were best served by stealth rather than speed.

Jareth rose and prepared himself for the coming hours of reports on the state of the kingdom. Inconveniently, he would not be able to monitor how Sarah proceeded through the forest. This time, for all their sakes, he hoped Elden did not make another mistake. Memories of his mouth on Sarah's only strengthened Jareth's resolve to win. He was convinced this quirk of fate had been an answer to a question he didn't dare ask.


	5. Chapter 5

"I think we've been walking in circles, Hoggle." Sarah was tired, so very much more so than even an hour ago but in an entirely different way than when she awoke from the incident in the cave. The forest, at first cool and fairly welcoming, now seemed dark and suffocating. The soft glow that came off the lizard at least relieved some of the oppressive darkness from the dense canopy above.

"You can't know that. These trees all look the same. We'll gets there." But Hoggle's voice wasn't strong or sure, hushed in this place that seemed to muffle sounds. It would have been less alarming, but beyond the rustling of greenery and the occasional howl of wind Sarah was sure she could hear a shriek now and then. She knew it had to be from an animal because unlike the wind that would wax and wane, the other noises would begin abruptly and then be cut off just as abruptly. Once, she had looked up and seen a spider's web big enough to cover the entire floor of her bedroom and pushed forward that much faster to get away from it. The lizard waddled along stoically.

"I _know_ we've been walking in circles, Hoggle." Sarah was so weary she wasn't even mad when she said it, even if she felt the irritation to her core. "Look here," she veered off to the side, startling the lizard who chirped at her in what sounded like reptile admonishment.

"A black leaf, so what?"

"Hoggle, it's only on this side of the path." Sarah wandered over to where the lizard was sitting, waiting for them to move again. "And look…" Grabbing a handful of shed leaves from the forest floor she dropped them from above and onto the salamander. It watched the leave spiral above it and as they hit the creature closed its eyes until the leaves slid off of it. Most turned to ash almost immediately on contact with his skin, but those that just glanced off the side charred black.

"Look, black like soot. Like the tip of my finger now. And what else would make sense other than that we're going in circles? The charred leaves practically scream it!"

Hoggle looked kind of offended, "I'm just doin' the best I can! I never said I knew everything, did I?"

"I didn't say you did anything bad, I merely think we should perhaps step off the path, as it is, if it's leading us astray."

"If you're so smart then you can get us out of the forest, then! Hmph!" Hoggle crossed his hands over his chest and Sarah tried to leash her temper. She was the one with everything to lose, the one whose body ached and mind buzzed. It just wasn't fair! How was she supposed to navigate a forest she knew nothing about, filled with the scary unknown. A fat tear raced down her cheek and she swiped at it lest Hoggle see her moment of weakness. Crying wasn't going to solve anything, and with a wet sniffle she stopped the flow from continuing.

Warmth permeated her, easing her feelings of hopelessness. The tickling sensation on the back of her hand had her looking down into the wet eyes of the salamander which was flicking its tongue on her and distracting her from dangerous introspection.

"I don't suppose you know the way out?" She said to her smooth orange friend, smiling at her own joke. As if the beast could understand her! The urge to pet it was strong, but all she had to do was look at her blackened fingertip to remind herself of the danger. It wandered away from her, moving in circles around the path nearby.

A gurgle from her belly reminded her that food and water were distant memories. What she wouldn't give for just some simple beer and bread! Or a bowl of porridge. Half a day without food was not so very long, she told herself again, but it certainly felt like her energy was seeping out of her even with anger and fear nipping at her heels and giving her the push of desperation. Maybe this was what drove deer to escape hounds.

Now that they had stopped moving Sarah felt all the scrapes and bruises she had sustained today keenly, and the itching on her ankle was particularly pervasive from the dried plant sap. "Sarah, you look tired. Just have a rest. The forest ain't going nowhere." Hoggle pointed at a rock that would be as close to a bench as she would see in the place, and she was sorely tempted to sit and let her feet throb a little without her weight pressing down on them.

She stopped suddenly when the tickling sensation on the back of her hand started up again. Looking down at the lizard, it was brightly glowing and met her eye with one of its own before smartly turning around and taking off into the brush. It peeked a head out, staring at Sarah, and blinked while smoking curled around its body from burning greenery and created an erstwhile path into the unknown.

"I think it wants us to follow it, Hoggle." Sarah called over to the dwarf who had just settled down on the rock and removed a boot to empty it of grit.

"What does a fire lizard know about forests?! Humph!"

"Once you're done you can follow us, the trail should be pretty clear." Hopeful again, Sarah curved away from the sitting rock and moved towards the smoldering bushes.

"Sarah, no!" Hoggle's protests faded to background noise as Sarah followed her cheerfully colored reptilian friend into the unknown.

***

With the lizard in the lead they made brisk time into the brush. It didn't take long before Sarah heard what sounded like distant drums, and her again flagging energy renewed. People! She could get help maybe, or directions. Brilliant lizard, maybe it felt the vibrations and led them that way.

Hoggle, who was more preoccupied with the dress he carried for her being snagged on every branch they passed, seemed to realize too late that the drums were getting louder.

"I don't think we should get any closer to that, Sarah…blasted roots trying to trip me on purpose!"

"Our guide doesn't seem worried." The lizard forged ahead, not heeding if they fell behind unless it couldn't see them entirely at which point it would halt until they caught up. The singed leaves were very easy to follow, thankfully, even with the dense growth swallowing them up.

"It's also near invulnerable and very dangerous, while we are soft meat bags to the things that live in this place!"

"Don't talk about meat, Hoggle, I'm hungry enough as it is." Sarah ducked as a particularly large and low branch refused to give. To make matters worse, something that smelled rather like salted pork wafted on a breeze towards them. "Oh, Hoggle, did you smell that?"

"I sure did, missy, and it smells like trouble. We shouldn't follow that damn lizard a step further!"

The lure of food made Sarah entirely tune Hoggle out and she wandered forward as if in a daze. A shout startled her, but did not stop her progress as she watched the orange lizard dart forward and out of view. The joyful voices were so close that when the clearing opened up suddenly she almost stumbled straight into it. Hoggle, somehow, had caught up to her and breathlessly tackled her knees. Sarah went down hard with curses on her breath and the wind was knocked from her. Hoggle wheezed, obviously having ditched her dress to catch up with her, and furiously whispered.

"Fireys!" As if that were all the explanation she would need. Meanwhile the lizard had wandered straight into the clearing, totally oblivious of the danger that was making Hoggle's eyes go big and rotate about randomly in his head. "Don't make a sound, if they see us we're done for!"

Beasts the colors of the sunset were jumping around, their big eyes and floppy ears made all the more ridiculous by their wide smiles. Nothing about them seemed that threatening, other than their number, since they barely came up to Sarah's elbow it looked. A cauldron in the middle bubbled, the source of the pork smell, and they dipped bowls in and slurped the contents while babbling and laughing to one another. She thought she could make out words she understood, and if they spoke the king's English then they were an even more helpful bunch.

"Oh you grand lizard, you! See Hoggle? He found help for us! If they live here they certainly know how to get out of the forest."

"No, you need to see, Sarah. Fireys are more dangerous than anything else here. Even more so than over-sized spiders that spit acid, or the invisible leeches that only turn purple and fall off once they've fed from your life essence… fireys can _hunt_." As sometimes happened when he was really scared, Sarah noticed the timbre of Hoggle's voice change. "Whatever is in that pot, I assure you it's no meat you want to have pass your lips."

Suddenly scared for her orange traveling companion, paused and waiting for them to follow at the middle of the clearing, she watched the fireys stretch at their campfire and drop their bowls into the dirt. Tails switched back and forth and she watched as one grabbed another by their short horns and began to wrestle. Cackling laughter could be heard over the ever present drumming, and Sarah watched horrified as one of them emerged with the head of the first. They ran around the campfire while the headless body wandered around and made rude gestures in random directions.

"What's playful to them could easily kill you or I, so we need to keep moving!"

"I'm not leaving my friend behind!" Hoggle gave her a scornful look as she tried to whistle softly to the lizard. All it did was cock its head to the side at her and sit down in the dirt. Sunlight was streaming down in the clearing and it seemed happier than it had been in the underbrush. "Silly thing, come here!"

With a shout, the fireys spotted the glowing orange lizard and as a tribe rushed towards it. Sarah cried out, afraid, and strained to stand up and run to help her friend. If she could grab a branch or a loose rock or something maybe she could beat them away before anyone came to real harm. Sarah didn't want to have saved the lizard from torture only to leave it in the hands of magical creatures that might do any number of terrible things to it. But Hoggle was a lead weight around her knees and she couldn't even kick against him, only swear and thrash.

A chorus of laughter went up, and Sarah couldn't even see the salamander, the fireys were so thick around it. There was cooing and a head and an arm went flying from somewhere in the middle to the outer edges. Some of them were throwing heads up to get a better view and then on hands and knees searching for another head to put on immediately after. Never did one stop to help another, but they seemed to hone in on missing parts fairly quickly anyway. All in all, it made Sarah sick inside.

"You couldn't do anything, Sarah, it would have been suicide." Hoggle, sensing she wasn't going to fight anymore, finally let go of her legs.

There was a screech and more laughter, then slowly the group of fireys began to move towards where Hoggle and Sarah were on their bellies in the brush.

"We're doomed." Hoggle moaned. "We can't outrun them, we're as good at stew meat."

***

Elden, right before the fireys converged on them to twist his head from his body and feast on his organs, thought briefly but very significantly that had he been less of a busybody he wouldn't have to face a gruesome death at the hands of the most curiously destructive predators in the Labyrinth's forest. Growing up, between the two of them, Jareth had been the cautious friend with Elden being bold in his statements and games. Elden's guile only extended to gathering secrets and laughing about them, but Jareth played long games where the secrets sometimes never even got told. As a friend it made him infinitely interesting and frustrating, but secretly a part of him feared that in this particular setup Jareth had no plan. The idea his conniving friend was flying with no place to land gave Elden a rare glimpse into mortal fear. Dying through a duel, or gored by an animal he was hunting—those were noble deaths. Dying in a borrowed body because he was unable to use glamour or raise a weapon struck him as the most ignoble way to go, and so he did fear. Where was Jareth? Wasn't he watching this? Would he intervene?

"Don't get near her, you beasts!" they were saying something in their sing-song language which was often more gibberish and cruel laughter than real words. "Run Sarah!" He'd fight them off in this puny body with his last breath, even if it was futile!

But Sarah didn't run, she simply stood and dusted leaves and soil from her kirtle, (which didn't look any more or less dirty after her trip to the ground than it had been before). "Hoggle,"

"Run, damn it!" He was trying to be noble here, and she was making a muck of it.

"Just _look_ at them a moment."

In another life, in another body, Elden would have had his sword out and charged in slashing. In this body, with nothing except gnarled hands balled into fists, he actually hesitated long enough to notice that all the fireys were in various states of supplication all around the salamander. One firey was whimpering and clutching blackened hands and it alone seemed to be spared worship.

"The Great One bids the human to come. Fireys will not eat or play with the human."

Sarah smiled, brilliantly, and her dirty face and clothes seemed to fade as pure joy and relief transformed her. Maybe Jareth saw something he didn't, maybe this was a glimpse. "And the dwarf! Promise me."

There was whispered conversation among the crowd and eventually the one with black hands called out. "And the dwarf, as it pleases the lady!"

Sarah, seemingly content with that much assurance, strode out to meet the lizard and Elden had the distinct impression she would have hugged it if it would not have caused her to spontaneously combust. Lagging behind, waiting to see what would happen, Elden admonished himself for cowardice and swiftly followed on her heels.

"What else does the Great One say?" she asked as the tongue flicked against her hand in what Elden assumed was the only affection the beast could show.

"The Great One will allow us to help! We help!" Laughter, more nervous than anything, echoed through the still worshiping crowd. "To the marble walls of the great city! And then the Great One will allow the party to continue…" It almost seemed a question as they all looked to the salamander. Elden could not make out any answer as the lizard was as impassive and silent as it ever was, but somehow it communicated something to the fireys because they stood as one and whooped and tossed limbs about in happiness.

They were all _insane_.

"Come, pretty lady, sit by the fire. We have grub. We have games. Play first?" Sarah looked over at the stew pot with something very like longing and disgust combined. She had to know that what was in that pot could once have been sentient, as a firey would eat whatever it pleased. Jareth's backup plan, a last resort, burned in his mind. Taking the peach out, it felt as heavy as gold in his hand. Mortals and the food of the underground had a patchy history, and he felt protective enough of Sarah at this point that he wasn't sure of the consequences.

"Hoggle! What's that?" Sarah's eyes were sharp, in addition to the fact that fairy fruit called to mortals in some uncanny way he would never understand.

"Nothing! It's nothing!" He tried to shove it back into his pocket, but it perversely rolled out of his hand and he bobbled it about like a clumsy juggler before he hid it once more.

"It looked like food. Please Hoggle, I feel like I'm dead on my feet. Just share a little with me." She had a glint in her eye, between the unnaturally tantalizing nature of the fruit and the savory meat smell wafting over them and spurring her substantial hunger to new heights.

Laughing as if it were a game, surrounded by fireys that thought the whole world was a game, Elden felt bony fingers immediately rush him as he was lifted into the sky.

"Yes, the little man should share! Fireys know how to share!"

"Stop it you blasted—oof!" He was tossed like a bag of flour from firey to firey while Sarah chased after him. She was telling them to put him down, but fireys rarely listened to anything anyone said (or screamed).

"Let us just take an ear, he doesn't need two!"

"Yes, or an eye, we could trade! There's no harm."

"Stop it you ridiculous things!" That would be Sarah, bless her. The whole world spun as they tried to toss him as high as they could to one another.

"This way, I can catch!"

"You'll anger the Great One!" Sarah, red faced with anger, finally said the right thing to halt all activity. Elden crashed to the ground, on top of a firey who was supposed to catch him but instead cushioned his fall rather poorly. He felt the world spin as he regained a sense of balance.

"Never fear, pretty lady, we have the prize for you." The peach passed from hand to hand until it was presented in front of Sarah like a trophy. Elden, still dizzy, tried to stop her from taking the fruit only to be held back by multiple steely grips. A wordless cry of rage escaped him.

Sarah examined the fruit as if in a trance. It was more plump and perfect looking than something that had traveled in a dwarf's pocket had a right to be. "Just a bite, and you can have the rest Hoggle."

Sensing something wrong the salamander had wandered over and gave a rude sounding squawk just as she took a mouthful of the flesh. Peach juice ran down her face and hand, and it didn't take but one bite to knock her back to her senses and drop the fruit bonelessly.

"The Great One is angry! Woe!"

"Shall we eat the dwarf now?"

"Let me go you soulless beasts!" Elden felt the hands release him, like a trap suddenly opening, and he vaulted forward in time to catch Sarah as she sank to the packed dirt. Her eyes were already becoming glassy. "I told you, Sarah, I said it was nothing. Damn it all!"

"What have I done, Hoggle?" She was fading into the dream already, a smile twitching at the edge of her mouth. If this was how Jareth won games, it didn't seem sporting. Sarah's fight was something Elden could respect, having traveled with her for the day and listened to her stories. She had a family, and a world of responsibilities and dreams and even if he had rebuffed her at every overture of friendship he had to admit he couldn't block out her words. That she would fail when she'd gotten farther than anyone he'd ever heard of just seemed…

Unfair.


	6. Chapter 6

The sun was blinding before her eyes adjusted as the lingering spots cleared. Sarah leaned out the high window on her elbows and looked down upon the Labyrinth with fondness. Somewhere in the distance an animal howled, and she wondered at the wildness of the vast space beyond the safe walls of the city. A sparkle from her dress caught her eye and she examined the crystalline structure, so like dew on a spider web, as it turned the light into rainbows where it hit. The skirts were voluminous and yet weighed nothing in her perception so it might very well be dew and spider's webs if she paused to scrutinize it. That it could feel familiar and foreign at the same time was nothing new. Indistinct memories of yesterday reminded her not to wonder too hard on what came before.

"My dear, what catches your interest today?" That she had heard no door open, nor sensed another presence in the room before her prince spoke, she had recently become accustomed.

Sarah turned to watch him approach and the heavy weight of his eyes on her compelled her speech before she had thought the words through. "I see the gardener below, a dwarf, he's using poison on the weeds that would choke the roses." Almost unsure if she should say it, she added. "I wonder how the weeds feel about him."

Her prince laughs and she knows the warm languid sun on her skin has nothing on the way his smile makes her feel as it reaches his eyes and turns the green one even greener. A whisper of a memory says that anger makes the blue one icy, but the thought is as ephemeral as a breath on a window pane.

"Tell me a story as we head to breakfast, Sarah." He offered her his arm, as if they would dance, and she had to suppress disappointment when they didn't. The fabric of his sleeves was oddly rough against her hands and she wondered how long she would be overly sensitive to the world around her, and if that was new or just her being anxious in his presence.

"An aquilegia seed found itself carried on the winds, flying from zephyr to zephyr…" she began before telling the harrowing tale of a brave weed settling in a foreign land, and the mysterious giant that vomited toxic water. Her prince laughed at the plots of the small band of weeds to frustrate the giant, and before she knew it they were sitting down to breakfast. So hungry she felt as if something were missing from her, Sarah found the food was as ash in her mouth so instead continued her story until its inevitable and tragic (for the weeds) end.

Messengers brought the prince news, as servants took plates away from them. He scowled, which told Sarah he wanted her to see his displeasure as she had never known her prince to take an uncontrolled action.

"I'm afraid something has occurred to take me from the castle today." From you, he didn't say and she could feel both desire and dread in her heart. What appeal did she hold for this man? She couldn't entirely answer that question and it ate at her. A prince of the realm, and a king in his own right, but what was she to him? "You seem troubled, but I assure you there's nothing to fear. I will return before the sun touches the horizon."

Guards entered, along with an advisor, and all of the men began to talk earnestly about trolls and bridge foundations before their voices carried out of the hall and she abruptly realized she was sitting at an empty table with servants looking expectantly at her.

"Bring my music notes and my dulcimer to the garden." It seemed important, somehow, that she do that, as if recreating something. "And send the royal gardener to me when he's finished with his morning duties."

***

"God's curse you lizard I'm not going to harm her, get your worshippers off of me!" Elden, who had not been allowed within ten feet of Sarah since her collapse, tried once again to see if she was ok only to be barred by a wall of fireys.

They hooted and sang and tossed limbs as they bounced her prone form, held aloft by many hands, towards the goblin city. The kirtle, torn and dirty, had practically disintegrated under this treatment, leaving her indecent to the sky in a few torn scraps of kirtle and only the chemise to maintain modesty. If Sarah had been conscious she would have been scandalized. Honestly, even Elden felt guilty for abandoning her dress in the wilds of the forest now as there was no dignity to be had if she ever woke up again. They were moving quickly, and his short legs were having a hard time keeping up. In addition the fireys often tried to trip him or throw him, and he'd had to grit his teeth and tolerate the indignity just to make sure he wasn't left behind.

The borrowed form of his was beginning to itch, and the sun was low in the sky. Already he was taller than he had been a half hour ago. If Jareth's magic was wearing off then that meant her time was growing short. The fireys might get her to the goblin city, and the salamander might even command them enough to get her to the gates of the castle, but how was she to win in this state? Had Elden damned her quest? It felt silly to feel any guilt for doing exactly as he had been commanded by his friend and prince. If anything, guilt in this context implied treason.

"Curse it all…" Elden mumbled as he itched at a nose that no longer looked knobby enough to belong to a dwarf.

***

Sarah, at her prince's request, had taken to dictating scenes to a royal scribe to be acted out by selected members of the staff and servants in the evening for entertainment. It had been a favorite, along with music, in the evening for the castle and more time and money had been invested into it than anything of its kind Sarah had heard of before. It seemed magical that her words became reality, and was just as fantastical and outlandish as any real magic she had seen her prince perform. She knew this because the gardener reminded her of it when he finally visited her. His gruff manner was oddly comforting. He asked her if the servants would still be allowed to watch from the sidelines, and Sarah wondered if she had the kind of authority to make such promises even as she assured him things would continue as they had with everyone allowed to experience the small plays.

How funny she couldn't remember last night's production even though one of the prince's advisors made it a point to come praise her for its entertainment value as she came in to eat the afternoon meal which satisfied her no more than breakfast had. The scene had been such a hit, the same one was to be acted out again that evening. How was it that something that seemed so common should seem so novel to these shining people with their unusually beautiful faces and easy artistic leanings?

Her feet brought her to the throne room, where sets were being assembled to be ready for this evening, and she looked on the stone seat where her prince sat and gave his rulings. It didn't look like the throne of a civilized monarch, it looked like the site of a druidic ritual. Maybe the throne had come first and the castle assembled around it, because the fire pit in the center that merrily burned with large logs seemed just as ancient. Runes carved throughout the stone of both in a language nearly pictographic in construction gave her the chills if she tried to derive some sort of meaning from them. Old words, old promises. The mystery of it had her making the sign of the cross absently.

"You seem troubled." True to his word, her prince had returned, and it wasn't even evening yet. Her eyes must have crinkled with her curiosity and he replied to her wordless question. "Trolls aren't large on diplomacy, not that I didn't try. I'm afraid we have a new statue to grace the side of the moat." He wielded such power, but he exercised it so rarely or brutally in front of her that it was hard to believe this slim charming man was so fearsome he could conquer trolls and return without a so much as dirt on his perfectly tailored clothes. He was stunning in black and red today, hinting at lithe muscles.

"I want the performance to go well," Sarah supplied, though that didn't touch on her growing uneasy feeling or the gnawing emptiness no food seemed able to fill.

"Your beautiful, nimble mind supplies the whole court with delight. Your worries are unfounded. Before you came this place lacked a certain quality…"

"And now?"

"Everyone gets to experience a new perspective on the world every night. You don't know how invigorating that can be for my people." Catching her hand and placing it on his arm, her prince led her from the room. "You'll need rest before too long. You forget the time."

Whatever could he mean? Other than a slight malaise and general confusion, she didn't feel out of the ordinary, but checking herself in the mirror of the grand hall as they exited shocked Sarah down to her core. The hair that had been neatly coiffed and capped with a headdress was the green of oak leaves in summer, and her normally pale green eyes were solid black in her head, as shiny as polished onyx. Biting her lip and looking away as fast as she could, she felt her whole body start to tremble.

"It begins early tonight, let's quicken our pace." The iridescent quality of her skin that had been outshone by her otherworldly dress all day suddenly rose in stark relief now that she looked for it. What manner of monster was she and how did it come to pass?

_She couldn't go home like this._

And in that panicked thought, a weed sprouted in her mind's carefully cultivated garden.

***

The salamander was smarter than Elden had ever given it credit for. They said elementals were princes among their own kind, and maybe that was true when he saw two packs of fireys break off from the whole and dart ahead in different directions.

"Where do they go?" he shouted as he ran, now the tallest dwarf that had ever graced the Underground, and he was pleased to hear his own voice escape still chapped lips.

A firey running beside him cackled. "Luckies! Great One says to distract guards. Mebbe they bring us helmets to play with for later and we have good ball game. Heads always getting kicked in bushes and lost!"

Elden tried not to think about the gruesome war the salamander was promoting between the Goblin King and the fireys. They couldn't distinguish between hunting and playing, and they would assume it was all part of the game if they were stabbed or shot at. Short of setting a firey's individual body parts on fire and stomping on the ashes they were notoriously hard to permanently kill. There would be trouble from this long past Sarah's win or loss today.

What seemed even more unbelievable was the speed at which the castle and the city walls were approaching. Unconscious, Sarah had no idea how dear her attempted win might come to the fey conscripts on the guard. Elden asked the gods to look over the city protectors and put more energy into his already exhausted limbs to keep up with the demons carrying his erstwhile friend to her destiny.

***

"What's happening…?" Sarah felt her legs go weak and then give entirely. As if it were nothing, the prince swept her into his arms and continued to head to the part of the castle that contained her living quarters. They were next door to his own, she noted with unusual calm since now her body was distracted by a fever so intense she was sure fire was involved only to be followed by wintery chills.

"Every evening." Her prince looked down at her face, contorted in pain, and she wondered what he saw. Did he see the girl she had once been or the creature she was now? And which one prompted the softening of his angular smile from sinister to fond? "Every evening it takes you by surprise."

Her door opened unaided, and she didn't even scold him for casually wasting magic. She was flattered he would exercise his power for her, felt how firmly he held her, and wondered why even this seemed familiar when she had no memory of it.

"Don't look at me!" Sarah tried to cry as pain replaced chills and a feeling like something was being ripped from her insides started at her spine and radiated outwards, rendering further speech impossible.

Seemingly impassive, as soon as the pain stopped she felt gloved hands lift her from the carpet on the floor and set her down onto a bench in front of a vanity. Her dress, now less voluminous, seemed made of large leaves with the fine lines you saw when you held them up to the light standing out larger than life as it flowed to the floor. Eyes, still black, examined strands of hair the blue of deep water. Tears welled up but she forced them down.

"Green suits you," her prince said, his face only slightly warped in the nearly perfectly constructed mirror that she couldn't have guess the price of with the gold painted inlays depicting the Labyrinth along its sides.

"I'm a monster." She said, more for her benefit than his. If she had been an outsider before, she had no idea how terrible life would be now if her mother… she clutched at her chest where something should have been and felt a deep ache. It was the same feeling she got when she ate the food that didn't fill her. Or spoke to the people whose names she couldn't remember.

The prince came to stand behind, placing graceful hands on her bare and quivering shoulders. She could feel the heat of his hands through the fabric, those dangerous hands that only today had slain trolls and carried her up stairs and down corridors.

"You're unique," he said and there was a depth of feeling in his words backed by intensity she wanted to shy away from. "Every day you transform, you create, you learn and adapt… everything gifted to humanity combined with gifts of magic. There's no one like you in the Underground." Possessively, those warm hands curled ever so slightly to squeeze her shoulders.

"Than what am I to you?" She said it baldly, driven into a state of rawness by the happenings of the day. "I don't even know your name." Horrified, she met his eyes, seemingly only realizing now that the reality she knew couldn't be so impossible, that nothing about this made sense, and that that void inside of her was not truly empty but perhaps had been _hidden_.

He backed away, sensing a shift. "Sarah, please, concentrate on me. I need you to stay calm."

"No! Why can't I remember my mother? Why can't I remember the name of my brother?!" She had a brother, she knew she did, but she couldn't picture anything more than a blur. Standing from the vanity, she felt her dress whisper like silk, and tried to rip it only to find it stronger than any leaves she could have imagined. Random destruction wasn't going to get her anywhere, but she needed to take some action and violence was rising in her heart to fight the insidious whisper that if she calmed down then everything could be as it was before she started acting so hysterical.

"You just need time, and soon you'll see…"

"I'll see _what?!_"

"I need you here Sarah," He said it like a command, but that was as close as this prince got to begging. Those fine eyes of his were hypnotic and she recognized longing that matched her own, even as she fought to maintain her anger. He had everything in his world, but he was alone, and he saw something in her that made life less lonely. Sarah understood being different, she understood standing apart and having expectations that didn't match your dreams. But Sarah had also learned true disappointment as life hands you nothing to choose between but two devils—something this man had yet to face.

"If you care for me, you'll tell me your name."

He froze, fists clenched, and Sarah felt all her doubts coalesce with absolute certainty into one sentence. "This isn't real, is it?" Turning to face herself, onyx eyes glittering, she picked up the bench in front of her vanity with strength her body should not have possessed and smashed that pricelessly beautiful mirror.

As the world crumbled about her and shards of glass cut her as deeply as the memories that flooded her mind now that the tide was no longer stemmed, Sarah heard whispered words of which the most important she carried with her back into true consciousness. Along with that word was the feeling that she had been trampled by a horse.

"Jareth."

The first breath she took smelled of rotten meat and refuse, and sardonically she wondered if she could still opt back into the dream.


	7. Chapter 7

Chaos around her made Sarah wonder if she had died and this was the hell that the priests told her about. Idyllic life in the castle from her dream warred with her groggy brain to reconcile the fires and screams punctuated by the cheerfully insane laughter of the fireys. She had been propped up against the side of a building, and she could she a firey dancing in the water of a nearby fountain while another lobbed an arm to the roof of a house where yet a third was knocking the glass out of windows from above with the detached limb. It was fodder for nightmares to come.

There was noise everywhere, so much so she could barely hear, while Hoggle crouched next to her and shook her by the shoulders. He wanted to know if she was ok, he was pinching her cheeks and waving a hand in front of her face. The lizard sat on her other side, her ever immobile guardian. If it was possible to have a blank stare and be smug, the salamander might have discovered the way. Fire and billowing smoke cast shadows on them all.

But first things first.

"What happened to my clothes?" She had no shame or shock left, merely an iron core of determination to win. If she had to do it in her undergarments, or naked, then she would. The sky was already red with the sunset, so her time was obviously running out. A wisp of a sigh inside of her longed for the leaf green dress that existed only in her dream and Sarah tried to dismiss any sentimentality for something that never existed. There would be time for dreams later.

"Sarah, quickly, before they close the castle gate!" Hoggle's voice didn't sound right, and as he helped her up she had the distinct shock of looking him in the eyes. The person didn't look like Hoggle but did have a Hoggle-ish enough quality that she was certain it had to be him.

"Hoggle, what's happened to you?" The lizard wouldn't have let Hoggle be near her if he wasn't himself, but she almost wondered if this was another dream. He braced in front of her as if she was meant to climb on his back, and she spared a glance at the calm lizard and the swiftly conflagrating town before she came to a decision. "Wait…"

Sarah leaned down to speak softly to her elemental friend. "I can never thank you enough for the help you've given me, and I have one last favor to ask of you. If you can stop the fireys and tell them to go home, please do so. I don't expect you can do much about the fires. I'll be safe with Hoggle," she said that bit with more confidence and authority than she actually felt given the dwarf's strange changes and piece mail memories of entering the firey camp before her dream. "Don't allow my journey to be an excuse for a massacre!"

The lizard stood up and looked alert, but there was no telling what it was going to do. Its tongue flicked over her hand, the burned one, twice over and then it turned to wander off. Its mysterious agenda would be a question for another day, and she wished it well and back safely to its no doubt red hot den.

"Sarah, there's no time!" Hoggle was still braced in front of her and she was amazed as he rose from his crouch and she was so high off the ground. He took off at a run and amidst the smoke and confusion they easily breached the castle gate and ran past guards moving at full speed towards the town with water buckets and weapons both. Easily navigating the courtyard, Hoggle burst through a side door and ran through the kitchen where cooks and servants were relaying information with frantic waving and Sarah felt a few smacks with spoons and raw vegetables before they were flying through a hallway and out another door. The garden was exactly as she remembered it from her dream, but as Hoggle dropped her down behind a bush and caught his breath she wondered at how not like Hoggle the dwarf now looked.

"This is as far as you can take me, isn't it?" Feeling much better in body, even if slightly weak and surely aching from her neck down, she put a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he looked up at her. His features were visibly shifting in front of her, exposing the sharply handsome face of a stranger.

"I shouldn't have even taken you this far." He seemed glum, and in that he was still her Hoggle. "I hadn't meant to even get involved."

"Thank you." Simply, sincerely, it was all Sarah could say as emotion choked her up. No one could have done more, even with his suspicious behavior and inadvertently poisoning her. He had stayed by her side and ultimately placed her in a position where she had a chance to win her freedom.

"Save it for later, my lady, you'll need to run if you're to catch the sun."

Grateful there were still shoes on her feet, Sarah got up from behind the bush and took off for the garden entrance like a hunted doe.

***

She _knew_ this place. The dream had to have been magical, larger than life, but it had drawn on a real place and (she was certain of it now) real people. Checking corridors before running down them like an off-white ghost she felt renewed energy, hope, and even humor bubble up from a well inside of her she thought had run dry. Winning this would be like slaying her own dragon! The breathlessness she used to worry about with every quickened step wasn't plaguing her, her dream had armed her with a map, and other than every inch of her hurting and dirty the only real downside was running through a castle in her underthings. Not even Toby would believe her tale when she returned home. Most certainly in her version of the tale she would remain fully dressed.

Unerringly she got closer and closer to the chamber that contained the stone throne, and it felt as if the castle were truly deserted because the way there she did not see even a glimpse of someone living. Every hand was most likely out fighting fires, as they would be in any town in her own world. Concern over the people she didn't know but who she had harmed inadvertently put a stumble in her step, but guilt wasn't going to put out fires and neither was it going to win her freedom. Sarah had to take her mind off of what was happening outside.

Maybe when she was home she would write a play under Toby's name and her adventures would be performed. Or a song, but what kind of song would work for a tale just as fantastic as the ones of Arthur and the knights of his day? Maybe she needed to learn how to draw to properly capture Hoggle, or the Goblin King.

And as her thoughts trembled in her mind, she burst her way in through a crack in the great doors that led to the throne room. Down the corridor, past the crackling fire pit, the Goblin King truly lounged on his throne. It looked distinctly uncomfortable, but he was elegant and unruffled in a cream and navy outfit that looked as regal as she expected him to. The girl in her dream, which she was afraid was too much like her to be denied as a mere construct, whispered wishes to her that she would never dare let pass her lips. The king stared at her from across the way as if he knew them before she ever said them, and smiled.

Only getting as close as the fire pit where, she knew from a memory she never should have had, people stood while he passed judgment and gave a courtly curtsy. "Your majesty, I have fought my way to your castle. Beyond you the Goblin City burns, which I greatly regret is taking place but I did not realize my own power would be so great."

"From what I understand it was more the doing of your elemental friend. The creatures of fire always did have a murderous sort of loyalty." His voice curled out and suffocated her as sure as the smoke. The memories from the dream were not her own, even if the feelings that followed her from it felt oh so personal.

"You've lost, Your Majesty, send me home to my own realm." The red-gold sky outside proclaimed there was yet day to be had. "As you can see the sun is not set, and here we are in your throne room."

"Indeed." The king rose from his throne inhumanly fast and circled around to stand so close to her she took a step back before angrily regaining her ground despite being very nearly nose to nose. "I see many things: a woman in her undergarments as proud as a queen, my city in ruins and my people panicking, a trusted friend brought low to treason—" Sarah felt dread deep in her heart for Hoggle, and was about ready to jump to his defense when she realized that would only implicate the man more. "But none of what I see today includes a human victor. In fact, shortly you'll understand the full consequences of your day here. As you can see, the light is dying."

The insidious feeling of wrongness that had permeated her being since awaking from the dream was magnifying, and now that he had brought attention to it she could feel something slithering about her insides. This was not nervousness, this was invasive magic and she could not run from something that already had her in its clutches.

"You said I needed to arrive before the sun set, and I have. I know your kind to be devious but never faithless." The tremor in her body was magnifying, beginning to burn. Perhaps the dream she had been given was of her future. Briefly glancing at the roaring fire pit and a very final sort of relief, Sarah wondered which fate would be worse but was stopped by the knowledge that compared to an eternity in hellfire eternity as a kept monster was at least a known evil.

Carefully, as if afraid she would bite, the king smoothed hands from the crown of her head down and she could feel the dirt and grime fall away from her hair. No doubt it was magically beautiful now, and he wound a long strand of it around a gloved finger before stepping away from her.

"I said by sunset. It was you who assumed I meant the end instead of the beginning. With the coming of twilight I had already won, though I admit you got closer than I would have been comfortable with…"

Sarah bit down on her cheek to stifle her cry. Beyond the pain was the feeling of absolute wrongness, and coupled with the realization of her defeat, she almost wished she wouldn't live through the transformation.

"Did you—" Pain made it difficult, but she spat the words out along with a bit of blood from her cheek. "Was that dream or prophesy?"

The tall glass windows illuminated them with the red of the sunset and yellow of the fires that flanked them. Sarah had sunk to her knees but the king stood proudly with stiff limbs and hard eyes. "It was a possibility."

"So will I be…?" Beautiful? Terrible?

"It's not for us to know." His gaze flickered over to the dying light.

Sarah cried out and finally began to topple to the floor, but found herself wrapped in strong arms instead of kissing the cold stone. Either she was vibrating so hard she was shaking them both, or he was holding her so stiffly his muscles were experiencing a tremor of their own.

"Please, the pain is unbearable." Was she already looking unlike herself? Was the concern in those previously stony mismatched eyes a product of delirium? "Jareth, please." At his name he looked visibly shocked before schooling his mask once more.

"Live through this, Sarah. I will be your king and your slave." His whispered words were all seduction, shot with worry. For the first time since this adventure began Sarah wondered if she might not live to see Toby again, or her father and step-mother. Her will to fight was slipping as magic strangled her humanity.

"How can I not hate you, I never had a choice…?" His beautiful face filled her vision and his cool lips graced her forehead before Sarah finally succumbed to the pain. "Jareth!" Dream Sarah's feelings and waking Sarah's memories were a blur as they tried to combine and refused to meld.

He held her so closely she could feel his shuddering sigh before her world faded into indistinct blackness.

***

"I told you to change the compress!" Hands where everywhere, it seemed. Their voices echoed and Sarah felt like every word was shot with pain like needles in her ears.

"She's awake!" More voices, she blinked at them a few times as if that might shut them out. A weak arm made it up before limply dropping to her side. She was practically swimming in sweat.

"Shh, don't move," It felt like her eyes had been boiled when blurry figures finally adjusted in the reddish light. "You're still feverish, rest. Let the leeches do their work."

Never would she have thought Karen's voice sweet as an angel's, but then she also never thought her mother's iron cross would burn white hot on her chest as it was doing now. Unbearable, Sarah managed to move it on top of her blankets and away from her skin, Karen fussing all the while. If she had not been burned as a witch or a demon by the time she woke up, Sarah would consider it a blessing.

Falling unconscious again soon after moving the cross was the only mercy of the day.

***

"Which part do you want to hear again?" Sarah smiled at Toby fondly while she tuned her dulcimer. Soon enough it would be St. John's Eve and today all the bigger boys and men were assembling the bonfires. Tomorrow it would be a day of rest as everyone ate, drank, and celebrated the day before the holiday. The weather was unusually hot and dry so choosing the right site for the burning was especially important this year. Toby wanted to be out digging fire pits and collecting wood and bones to burn, but he was too young so he had to settle for sitting with his sister and hiding from his tutor.

"Where the palace guards battle the fire demons!" Toby didn't hesitate, it was his favorite part.

"That's all you ever want to hear about," Sarah complained with a smile. "What about the part where the princess recues the dragon with her squire?" Looking down at the black mark on her fingertip, Sarah rubbed at it absently still half expecting it to come off like a bit of soot.

Toby stuck out his tongue. "Nah. Not enough swords."

"Just promise me you won't steal the poker from the fireplace again. Karen almost had my hide when she found out you were 'hunting fire demons' in the woods with it." Sarah firmly put out of her mind how she hadn't been able to touch anything made of iron since her fever. A subtly held handkerchief allowed her to allay the suspicion of others but between her newly gained aversion and the black mark that wouldn't fade from her hand, she was still having trouble dismissing her adventure as a mere fever dream. The absolute absence of breathing problems was at least a positive side effect of her recent illness, and the priest had told her it was God's blessing that kept her alive and cured her even as Sarah felt it had less to do with God and more to do with goblins. Sarah's mother's iron cross sat by her bedside now, anathema, and Karen had been so happy with this transition she had gifted Sarah with a number of other expensive jeweled crosses. No one suspected anything was wrong with her, beyond her normal willfulness.

"Promise. Tell me the story now?" As sincere as a kid could be before his impulses undid all his good intentions, Sarah sighed and started in on the tale.

"The dragon, fearing the princess who had rescued him was dead, called upon a mighty army of demons to take revenge upon the king. Now the dragon wasn't a bad dragon, but fire demons are very tricky and not to be trusted so as they approached the city…"

A sharp tingle ran through Sarah's hand as a servant stood at the door and called them both in. Shocked, Sarah tightened a string too abruptly and it snapped with a sad twang. No music tonight unless she could find a replacement string, and she wasn't sure if she had used the last one this winter or not.

"Go on Toby, if father really is home he'll want you to greet him." Toby didn't need to be told twice as he dropped his stick sword on the grass and took off for the door.

Taking a deep breath of the warm summery air, Sarah reminded herself to be grateful for life and breath. Magic and adventure had found her, even if in her dreams, and it had been terrifying and sorrowful even if she longed to see her lizard friend basking in the sun or ask Hoggle questions about who he really was. Her mind was a rich place but they had been bigger than life and more complex than she thought a dream could account for. Sarah didn't dare whisper the king's name, even to herself. Something about that memory seemed too tangled and, combined with her inevitable betrothal to a stranger before the year was out, it left a sour taste. If he was just her mind's fantasy, then she had some pretty high expectations.

As soon as she came in Karen was fussing at her, while Sarah handed off her broken dulcimer to be taken to her room. "I do wish you had let me have your hair put up this morning. You're far too old to have it hanging loose about your face."

Love through criticism, Karen's way. "I take it father brought home a business associate?" They had tried this before, and Sarah was simply too tired of fighting being paraded around in front of possible husbands to do much more than smile wanly. "If he works with my father than he knows how much I'm worth. I don't think hair matters much to these men."

"Bite your tongue wicked girl! Your father is trying to do right by you." Karen didn't like it when Sarah compared herself to the sheep and wool her father sold, even indirectly. "But this man doesn't need your father's money, he has his own. It would be in your interest to look nice for introductions once they've been able to finish their business."

"Why wait? Introduce me now and let him check my teeth and they can talk of shipping and marriage in the same breath. It would be quicker that way, would it not?"

Karen finally caught on that Sarah was joking with her, but her sour face remained. "He's young enough to please you, and your father hinted that he might have some nobility in the family. Better than you could hope for under most circumstances, so show some humility."

At least a little curious, Sarah walked over to see her father ruffling the hair on Toby's head before sending him on his way. The tutor might even get him to do some letters today as her brother was always on good behavior when their father got home from his trips.

"There, you see, a trifle pretty if you ask me but there's something about him…" Karen didn't say it in a nice way. She liked it when people looked simple and down to earth. Sarah's foreign good looks had sown the seeds of their bad relationship from the start and that Karen didn't like this man for the same reason made Sarah like him much more.

The room grew dark to her eyes and all her breath was stolen from her as a man dressed in green that could have been the Goblin King's twin took a step up next to her father and asked him a question. Both men laughed easily while Sarah grasped the door frame and tried to stay upright by locking her knees in place.

"Sarah!" Karen, who had steadfastly nursed her to good health, had been on the lookout for signs of relapse and shored her up immediately. It had been hard to admit the woman, despite her criticism and strongly held opinions, was deeply caring in her own way as well. Family first meant Sarah didn't need to fear for Toby being neglected as he grew once she was married off and left home.

Her loud exclamation caught the attention of both men, and they came over immediately. The king's double nearing her did nothing to stop the rapid heartbeat still stealing Sarah's air.

"My dear?" Her father directed the question at Karen, who had a firm grip on Sarah's arm.

"I've told her to take better care of herself, but your daughter seems to think she's invincible despite only recently regaining her good health."

"Karen Williams, my lovely wife, and Sarah Williams my eldest." Her father offered brief informal introductions having been caught off guard. "I'd hoped we'd all dine together before you left for your estate once more."

"I have a feeling our business will not take long to conduct today. Everyone is in a hurry to celebrate midsummer." The voice was the same, rich and musical. Sarah shored her defenses and stared at him, searching for a sense of familiarity or recognition. Eyes neither blue nor green stared back at her, glassy, considering. "But far be it from me to deny your hospitality."

There were questions in Karen's eyes that Sarah had no answers for, so when she made her excuses to go lay down and rest she knew all she could do was delay her step-mother's probing. The men no doubt retreated to the study where all the documents were kept and would be there until later this afternoon. Sarah had until dinner to decide if she was well enough to pretend like she wasn't going mad. It was all a fever dream, there was no way magic existed. To think differently went against God and good sense. Pacing in her room was not passing the time any less distressingly.

The knock at her door had her clutching at her heart, and she wished her nerves would calm. Taking a deep breath, Sarah centered herself and opened her door to find a handsomely smiling auburn haired man holding a package before him. His bright blue eyes took her in as if they were good friends. Sarah hated it when people assumed they knew her and her answering frown was twice as harsh even as sudden recognition softened her voice involuntarily.

"Yes?"

"My lord asked that I deliver a gift to the lady, should she deign to accept it." He presented the gift to her and she hesitated palpably before picking the cloth parcel up and undoing the fastenings. Beautiful cream gloves seeded with matched pearls impressed her with the sheer cost of the gift. "My lord told me to add that he is well familiar with having sensitivity to common materials. He hoped this would ease my lady's troubles."

Sarah inhaled quickly, worried that some other servant was passing and heard his words. The movement caught the perfume the gloves had been steeped in only to overwhelm her with the scent of peaches. "How did he—?"

"He would be most distressed if the lady had taken ill today and could not join the family for supper."

Sarah tried to form words that made sense, but only came out with a question. "What's your name?"

"Elden, my lady, though I've been known by other names before." Cheeky. Sarah wondered for the first time how he made it past all their staff to get to her room. Surely someone would have stopped him, especially with an unknown package.

At a certain point coincidences stacked too high and tight for it to be anything but providence. "Elden, answer me truthfully, though I think I'm correct in assuming you are incapable of lies," the man just smiled a little brighter as if his cheerfulness wasn't already rivaling the summer sun. "How can I put trust in a man I hardly know?"

"My lady," he gave a courtly flourish as he bowed to her, "Take it as a first sign of good faith that I am allowed to keep my head firmly on my shoulders despite some questionable decisions as of late. Forgiveness when none was expected only underlined to me his good character. When it comes to you, anything seems possible."

Silently, Sarah weighed her feelings. She had asked for a choice, hadn't she? "Tell him I accept this gift, and he needn't worry about my absence at supper."

Elden gave her another sunny smile and took two steps down the hall before turning to wink at her and disappearing in front of her eyes. If she squinted sideways she thought she might make out his outline, but soon enough she turned away and closed the door.

Perhaps she had only delayed the inevitable, but when she returned to the Underground she would be braced for her final trial. If it was to be believed, she was already less human than before she knew of goblins and salamanders. Wafts of the peach scent flowed off the gloves and turned her stomach ever so slightly. Like the Goblin King, there was beauty and the hint of something she wasn't sure she was ready for even as it enticed her.

Perhaps, with a man like Jareth in your life, there was no way you could really prepare.


End file.
